Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Good news! Senator Tom Coburn (R - Oklahoma) put an amendment on a credit card bill (HR 627) that repeals the gun ban on National Park Service (NPS) and National Wildlife Refuge System land. HR 627 just passed the U.S. Senate by a 67 to 29 vote. Both Virginia Senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb, supported the bill.

The bill now goes to a conference committee because the House version of the bill didn't have the National Parks amendment (and some other amendments).

The conference committee could strip out the amendment, keep it intact, or modify it. We need to fight to keep it in, in which case, the President would have to either sign the bill or veto the entire bill. The amendment cannot be stripped out by the President.

ACTION ITEMS:

You need to let your congressman know that you want the amendment for carry in National Parks kept in the credit card bill (HR 627) and not stripped out in conference committee. You also should thank Senators Warner and Webb for their support of the amendment.

1. Click on the link below to send a message to your Representative:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Suggested message:

As a constituent, I urge you to support Senator Tom Coburn's amendment to HR 627 that allows state and local laws to govern firearms possession on National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge System land.

Senator Coburn's amendment will in no way change or override state, local or federal law, but will simply allow these laws -- enacted by legislatures -- to govern firearms possession.

I urge you to do everything you can to make sure that Senator Coburn's Amendment, No. 1067, is not stripped out in the conference committee.

Please let me know what you're going to do on this issue that is very important to my family and me.

--

2. Click on the link below to send a message to Senator Warner and a message to Senator Webb:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_i ... m?State=VA

Suggested message:

Thank you very much for your support of Senator Tom Coburn's amendment to HR 627 that allows state and local laws to govern firearms possession on National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge System land.

I urge you to do everything you can to make sure that Senator Coburn's Amendment, No. 1067, is not stripped out in the conference committee.

Please let me know what you're going to do on this issue that is very important to my family and me.

Emails sent to both. Thanks for the heads up

Sent x2

Sent x3.

Thanks for posting this, DK. I wanted to get it out here, but hadn't yet had an opportunity to do so.

I bet it will be pulled out in the conference committee.

mroyal98 wrote:I bet it will be pulled out in the conference committee.

Could be. This is a good example of how ear marks are and should really be used. Lots of laws like this get passed merely by riding bills that are very popular. If it has enough support from those that also support the credit card bill it has a good chance of surviving.

I've done a scan of all gun legislation introduced by this Congress and am happy to see that most of them will die. There are about 2 dozen resolutions that have either hit the floor DOA or been passed off to a subcommitte (effectively the same thing).

Done I hope it makes it. Thanks for the heads up.

allingeneral wrote:Sent x3.

Thanks for posting this, DK. I wanted to get it out here, but hadn't yet had an opportunity to do so.

No prob, Rick. This is a hot issue right now as the president is pushing congress to get the credit card bill to his desk by Memorial Day.

Perhaps you can put this up as a sticky or something so everyone knows. Not much time left on this one.

This post has been stuck.

Whooohooo!

+1 more sent. Thanks again for posting this!!

Sorry to say that this bill goes to the Senate today for vote and the amendment to uphold the previous law for carry in national parks was withdrawn on 12 May in the Senate.

zephyp wrote:Sorry to say that this bill goes to the Senate today for vote and the amendment to uphold the previous law for carry in national parks was withdrawn on 12 May in the Senate.

Where is that info coming from? The latest thing I can find at http://thomas.loc.gov says the ammendment was agreed to on 12 May with no action since.

Moccasin wrote:

zephyp wrote:Sorry to say that this bill goes to the Senate today for vote and the amendment to uphold the previous law for carry in national parks was withdrawn on 12 May in the Senate.

Where is that info coming from? The latest thing I can find (Amendments_For_H.R.627)&./temp/~bdGLZm]HERE says the ammendment was agreed to on 12 May with no action since.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/L ... arch.html|

Cut and paste the whole URL. Scroll down to number 28.

28. S.AMDT.1068 to H.R.627 To protect innocent Americans from violent crime in national parks and refuges.
Sponsor: Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] (introduced 5/12/2009) Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 5/12/2009 Proposed amendment SA 1068 withdrawn in Senate.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z ... earch.html|

WTF! This was dropped the same day it was added, why was it made such a big deal that it was even put on there.

Normally things like this are stuck in surreptitiously and agreements are made between sponsors of the primary bill and sponsors inserting earmarks. I'll support your credit card bill and so will Bob, Bill, and Jane if you put this rider in. Part of the problem was the good Senator Coburn had no cosponsors for the amendment.

I heard a news report stating that he had made a deal to get it on there to begin with. But why bother at all if you are going to turn around and withdraw it? What really gets me though is that various organizations were pushing for support of this by their members but never bothered to inform them that it had been withdrawn.

He most likely negotiated a deal with the sponsor of HR 627 to get it in. The Senate pulled it out. All they needed was a majority vote regardless of who stuck it in.

Looks like the House has approved the NP carry ammendment. The full article is here. Most of it talks about the credit card bill itself, the NP carry part says-

"Included in the bill is an unrelated measure by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would allow people to bring loaded guns into national parks and wildlife refuges.

The House approved that provision separately on Wednesday by a 279-147 vote."