packing at yellowstone

i’m sure that you’ve heard about the credit card reform bill that passed in the senate yesterday. there is plenty to debate on this matter. there’s lots about this bill that i like, and a little that i’m weary of to be sure. that said, there’s one single measure in this bill that gets a gargantuan “wtf?”…and it all comes courtesy of my very own senator, mr. tom coburn. senator coburn, a republican, authored an amendment to the bill that would allow concealed weapons to be carried onto national parks. really, he did.

first i’ll state the obvious: what the hell does gun legislation have to do with credit card reform? i know that its standard (bad) practice for bills to be filled with all sorts of pet projects and other amendments, but this one was written by mr. “no pork” himself. a large portion of coburn’s election campaign here in oklahoma centered around his distaste for pork barrel politics and his promise to work hard to end the tradition. i’m aware that traditionally this deals with earmarked spending, which is his major focus, but the idea applies here.

second. what exactly does anyone need a gun for while visiting a national park? what exactly does this have to do with the need for well regulated militia or the right to own a gun? given mr. coburn’s interpretation of the second amendment, guns should be lawful everywhere, in any environment. the original intent of the second amendment is always up for argument, i’m not here to say otherwise. however, some common sense is certainly needed here. there is simply no good reason to carry a loaded weapon onto a federal park. i’d rather not be worrying about staring down the barrel of a 9mm handgun while going on a nature hike with my wife and kids.

let me be clear…i have no issue with gun ownership. i don’t like guns, but i see no reason why an adult person shouldn’t have the right to keep a firearm in their house. in most cases i have no problem with people that like to hunt, or even those that shoot clay for sport. there’s no harm in any of this. common sense at work. but there’s simply no line of logic that leads me to believe that any citizen needs to be carrying when visiting yellowstone or any other national park.

i would have been opposed to this amendment regardless of where it came from, but the fact that it comes from my home state is disappointing while not surprising. oklahoma has had a string of embarassing political moments here lately. it’s no lie that when i heard about the amendment i guessed that it *must* have come from one of my senators, though i’d have guessed it would be jim inhoffe. the fact that coburn introduced it might just be a silver lining though. its possible that hypocrisy like this will result in his ouster as my senator come the next election. if you’re against pork, you shouldn’t be tacking anything onto a bill, especially when your proposed measure has nothing to do with the bill. one can only hope.

Advertisement