The following is my regular Second Amendment Update.
1. Bush Administration / Department of the Interior to adjust Firearms Rules for National Parks: For over 25 years the US Department of the Interior has banned firearms from national parks and wildlife refuges. This from the NRA:
In a letter hand-delivered today to the U.S. Senators who wrote him asking for this policy change, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has directed Lyle Laverty, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Game and Parks, to “develop and propose for public comment by April 30, Federal regulations that will update firearms policies on these lands to reflect existing Federal laws (such as those prohibiting weapons in Federal buildings) and the laws by which the host States govern transporting and carrying of firearms on their analogous public lands.”
[…]
The move for regulatory change by the Administration will restore the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms for lawful purposes in most national park lands and wildlife refuges and will make the laws consistent with state law where these lands are located. Fifty-one U.S. Senators from both parties sent a letter to the Department of Interior late last year supporting the move to make state firearm laws applicable to national park lands and wildlife refuges
You can find a copy of the letter from Secretary Kempthorne here. I can only say that this is an about time thing. Camping in our National Parks and refuges is an often dangerous thing. Not only are there natural dangers from wild animals, but there have been many cases of people disappearing or being killed in these areas. I would prefer to be able to defend myself.
2. Schumer / Boxer Propose tougher gun laws: The instinctive reaction from the anti-gun crowd in the wake of schools shootings is always to enact more laws. Never mind that the murder broke numerous laws already - lets add some more while failing to enforce the onces we already have. After all, we need to make our constituents think we are doing something productive. Taking the Norther Illinois University shooting as a case in point lets consider that the attacker already broke the law by obtaining some of his weapons illegally, brought guns into a gun free zone, and possessed psychological issues which would have precluded him from owning a gun under federal law. This from NewsDay:
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), at a news conference yesterday in Manhattan, said he and congressional colleagues plan to step up efforts to close loopholes in gun-control measures and create a federal task force to come up with national school safety guidelines. They also plan to push for congressional hearings on links between mental illness and school violence.
3. Kennedy Introduces another Handgun Ban into Congress: The ever delusional Ed Kennedy once again pushes his belief that the manufacture and sale of handguns should be terminated. At least he is consistent. From the NRA:
As we recently reported, on February 7 this year, ten days after endorsing another handgun ban supporter–Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.)–for president, Kennedy renewed his efforts to ban handguns by introducing S. 2605, a bill that seeks to ban the manufacture, importation, and transfer (sale, etc.) of any semi-automatic pistol that does not possess “a microscopic array of characters that identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol . . . etched into the breech face and firing pin of the pistol,” and stamp both sets of characters into the cartridge case of a round of ammunition, when the round is fired. On the same day, Representative Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) introduced an identical bill, H.R. 5266, called the “National Crime Gun Identification Act.”
The Kennedy-Becerra bill is much more severe than the micro-stamping handgun ban passed in California last year. Where the California ban applies only to models of semi-automatic pistols that are produced after January 1, 2010, the Kennedy-Becerra bill would apply to all models of semi-automatic pistols.
I have already written on the issues with micro-stamping, so will not go into them again here.
4. Hillary Calls for “Presidential Summit on Gun Control”: Hillary confuses the hell out of me. Is this woman even speaking the same language as the rest of us? This from the Daily News:
Clinton started with the line she rolled out a couple days ago about recognizing that there is “no conflict” between letting lawful gunowners have weapons and keeping guns out of the hands of bad guys and the mentally ill.
She went on to propose a solution to coming up with a solution for the problem — kind of like her plan to come up with a plan for fixing another politically difficult problem, Social Security.
“I believe we really should have a summit where everybody comes together on all sides of this issue,” Clinton said. “Let’s figure out how we can be consistent with the Second Amendment, which I wholeheartedly support, and do more to keep people safe.
“I think we can do that, but it’s going to require us all to maybe give a little and understand the point of view of the other people,” she said. “That’s something I would do as President to really bring people together.”
“We know we need better background checks and we know we’ve got to have mental health information in there,” she said.
Moonbat.
