May 20, 2009. Our brilliant Congressman Tom McClintock (R, Elk Grove Automall) voted today to start forest fires in National Parks and help poachers, too, giving a thumbs up to Amendment Section 512, Protecting Americans from Violent Crime, from HR 627, Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act of 2009. This version, which intends to let people now carry LOADED GUNS into the National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges, was written by the Senate. Instead of having the House version reconcile it and strike it out, which could have been done easily by a Democratic majority, they left it in. Roll call of the vote: http://www.govtrack.us/...
You just knew there had to be an ulterior motive for McClintock to pretend to care about predatory lending.
Oh no, not this crap again!
In this section of the amendment that added the gun clause to the credit card bill, you can see the Fundie Code "bureaucrats and judges" to appeal to the right wing Hunting Rifles for Jesus crowd that is stocking ammo right now for the End Times which have been triggered by electing a Mooselum born in Kenya.
____ partial text. Full text found here: http://www.govtrack.us/...
(7) Congress needs to weigh in on the new regulations to ensure that unelected bureaucrats and judges cannot again override the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens on 83,600,000 acres of National Park System land and 90,790,000 acres of land under the jurisdiction of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
(8) The Federal laws should make it clear that the second amendment rights of an individual at a unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System should not be infringed.
(b) Protecting the Right of Individuals To Bear arms in Units of the National Park System and the National Wildlife Refuge System- The Secretary of the Interior shall not promulgate or enforce any regulation that prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm including an assembled or functional firearm in any unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System if--
(1) the individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm; and
(2) the possession of the firearm is in compliance with the law of the State in which the unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System is located.
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Of course Tom McClintock, R, Elk Grove Automall, Doesn't live in the 4th District, voted for it. This is what happens when it's necessary to score cheap political points with urban ideologues in Orange County. I know from living in CA, you're more likely to encounter Yogi Bear of Yosemite or Monty Mountainlion of Lassen breaking into your tent for that Mastercard or Visa than anywhere else in the country. And when he does that, save your credit rating and kill him dead, really dead, skin the pelt for Ebay, and notify Experion and Equifax.
In other words, during Fire Season, it is now permissible to carry a weapon into the dry as a bone California National Forests and Wildlife Refuges, which, if deployed, very likely WILL START A FOREST FIRE. Is this hyperbole? No, this is what is drilled into you by your neighbors when you first move here. You hear a shot in the summer, the first reaction is, "who is the dumba$$ trying to start a fire? Call the cops."
How does this happen? The bullet hits something hard and sparks near dry tinder. Metal on rock with speed. Snap. Pop. Game over.
Of course, you'd have to be a responsible gun owner living in a dry area and not in a McMansion in La- La Land to know this. Or you'd have to love ammunition Lobbyist money so much you'd risk torching your district rather than staying in perpetual campaign debt.
This is the same Republican Congressperson who fed that line about how "happy the environmentalists are when they see houses burning caused by forest fires" to the local Grass Valley paper, which got it from his interview in Truckee up at Lake Tahoe on a friday from an affiliate, which then pretended they went to see him in Quincy the next monday when he used it in front of a bunch of laid off loggers. They're laid off because the mill owners say's there's no trees to cut. I bet they're real happy to know that now, when they go into the National Parks or WL Refuges, they and their families are at higher risk of getting trapped in a forest fire or shot at by criminals, or hit by gunfire from poachers. Because when you allow people to carry GUNS INTO WILDLIFE REFUGES, there WILL BE POACHING, because the birds and game there are conditioned to think that those areas are safe havens. Not anymore.
At a time when our state's overworked and understaffed park rangers and fish and game specialists are already being challenged with more lawbreakers trying to either make money or feed themselves, did we really need this ?
Our spineless Democratic House could have fixed this ridiculous clause in a CREDIT CARD BILL, but they didn't, so now when responsible gun owners get to point this out that this is a severe fire safety danger and a grotesquely irresponsible thing to do, chickenhawks enamored of weapons manufacturing money like McClintock can whine about "the liberals want to take your guns away."
No, the liberals want to stop conservatives from enabling criminals to do stupid sh*t on public property so they can do their finger pointing routine at judges and play at vigilante fantasies. Liberals don't want severely understaffed Park Rangers out there in God's Country by themselves, getting shot, because now every encounter with a stranger could be an armed one.
How about it, Senator Barbara Boxer? You said it was a shame, "but you have to come to a realization around here that at this point in time, the NRA gets the votes." You and Senator Feinstein voted for the final version of this bill. Who's going to break it to the President what a disaster this is going to be for our already near bankrupt state, which has so many national parks ? Say some idiot accidently shoots himself in the remote backcountry instead of hitting an elk or starting an out of control conflagration, and manages to call for help before bleeding to death. Hello, expensive helicopter evacuation costing thousands of dollars.
How about it, Majority Leader Senator Reid ? Your desert state shares a boundary with California, has thousands of homes at risk of wildfire destruction in the Lake Tahoe area, and also has flammable forests in the Sierra Nevada. Care to explain this one? You actually voted for the amendment. Do you want to see scumbags poaching mustangs?
http://www.govtrack.us/... Senate Roll Call for amendment 1067 to HR 627
Don't let Congress get away with this. Just because we have a dumb anachronistic ideologue for a rep, doesn't mean you have to follow his lead.
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edit update. Press release by National Parks Conservation Association, "National Parks Rangers and Parks Advocates Outraged by Votes Allowing Loaded Guns in National Parks"
http://www.npca.org/...
“We are disappointed in the members of the House and Senate who allowed this amendment to pass, as well as in President Obama. By not taking a stand to prevent this change, they have sacrificed public safety and national park resources in favor of the political agenda of the National Rifle Association. This amendment had no hearing or review, and will increase the risk of poaching, vandalism of historic park treasures, and threats to park visitors and staff.”
“Legislators who voted for this amendment now have to live with the fact that they have, in fact, increased the risk to visitors and employees, as well as the risk to wildlife and some cultural resources. Moreover, they've just contributed to diminishing the specialness of this country's National Park System. We hope the American people register their disappointment in the actions of these legislators.”
Ronald Reagan put the loaded guns away for safekeeping in the National Parks. Is President Obama going to be known for letting them back in ?
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photo by diary author