by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
With overwhelming bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, legislation sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that makes it legal to carry loaded firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges under the provisions of the laws in the states where the park is located has passed on Capitol Hill, and is has been signed by the President.
The Senate vote to adopt the Coburn amendment to a House-passed credit card bill was a lopsided, bipartisan 67-29 (Click for the roll call vote tally).
It was a blistering defeat for gun prohibitionists who had filed a lawsuit against an Interior Department rule earlier this year to prevent armed citizens from carrying in parks under a National Park Service (NPS) rule enacted late last year. While the Obama White House chose not to challenge a preliminary injunction against that rule, which was adopted during the waning days of the Bush Administration, the President also did not attempt to veto the Coburn legislation.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) had joined the case as a defendant, but passage of the Coburn amendment to the credit card reform bill, seems to make that case moot.
Anti-gunners quickly blasted Congress. Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, argued that the Coburn measure “would override a longstanding and sensible regulation…that requires visitors to keep guns stored and unloaded when traveling through the parks.”
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, declared that “Families should not have to stare down loaded AK-47s on nature hikes.”
“This is a great victory for gun rights and common sense,” countered Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
“This step brings clarity and uniformity for law-abiding gunowners visiting our national parks and wildlife refuges,” noted Chris Cox, executive director for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.
Gun Owners of America (GOA), which had worked with Coburn on the language, issued a statement noting “Americans should not be forced to sacrifice their Second Amendment rights when entering NPS land and wildlife refuges.” GOA’s website also quoted Coburn lauding their organization’s efforts on the issue.
All three gun rights groups supported relaxing the park rule on guns, and the Coburn amendment goes beyond what the Bush Administration had adopted late last year.
According to the NRA, in 2006 there were 11 murders, 35 rapes, 61 robberies and 261 aggravated assaults on parklands. In the years between 2002 and 2007, there were 63 homicides in national parks, 240 rapes or attempted rapes, 309 robberies, 37 kidnappings and 1,277 aggravated assaults, according to NPS data.
Parks have also become havens for methamphetamine producers, marijuana growers and—especially in the Southwest—smuggling routes for illegal aliens.
Adding to that are natural dangers. The NRA noted that between April and December 2007, “there were at least a dozen grizzly bear attacks reported by park visitors.”
The new statute takes effect nine months after it was signed, essentially putting off implementation until February 2010.
Dismissing the argument that this new law will open up the parks to poachers, NRA’s Cox stated, “The NRA is opposed to poaching and always has been. We’ve supported enhanced penalties for illegal activities including poaching.”
“Those who portray this measure as an attack on public safety will soon be proven wrong, as they have been in the past when they opposed concealed carry legislation in state after state,” Gottlieb predicted. “This new law, which takes effect nine months after the president signs it, restores the Second Amendment to national parks and wildlife refuges.
“Public land, including national park and refuge land, belongs to all of the people,” he continued. “Armed citizens have just as much right to enjoy these parks as anyone, and their presence will make parks safer.”