BELLEVUE, WA – A key amendment that would allow national park visitors to carry concealed firearms in accordance with state statute is a common sense provision that deserves support, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.
Sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the amendment – added to House and Senate credit card legislation – was adopted by an overwhelming 67-29 Senate vote Tuesday, showing broad bipartisan support. If passed into law, Coburn’s amendment will essentially restore a new national parks concealed carry rule that became effective in January, but was challenged in court by the gun ban lobby.
In a statement, Coburn noted that, “If an American citizen has a right to carry a firearm in their state, it makes no sense to treat them like a criminal if they pass through a national park while in possession of a firearm.â€
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb agrees, noting that the rule change merely brought national parks in line with national forests and other federal lands, where citizens typically can carry firearms under the statutes of the state in which those lands are located.
“Opponents of this change,†said Gottlieb, “have wrongly suggested that allowing concealed carry in national parks will somehow lead to poaching and reckless target shooting, and diminish park safety. None of that alarmist rhetoric is true, but the rule has been challenged in court. By making this a provision of law, rather than an administrative rule, Senator Coburn’s amendment can put an end to that nonsense.
“One would think,†Gottlieb added, “that after the Supreme Court ruled on the Second Amendment last year, the individual citizen’s right to keep and bear arms would be respected everywhere, especially on federal park land. It looks like the majority in the United States Senate agrees with that concept.â€