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Elmer Smith: Pack a rod in Independence Hall? Your senators and the NRA get the credit
I HAVE a couple of questions for those two profiles in courage who represent Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.
I'm speaking here of Bob Casey and our on-again, off-again Democrat, Arlen Specter. They were among 27 Senate Democrats who, in a rare kumbaya moment, joined hands with 39 Republicans to back an amendment to permit the carrying of loaded firearms at Independence Hall and other National Parks.
The amendment, which purports to be a measure "protecting Americans from Violent Crime," cites the Second Amendment right to bear arms as a reason to overturn long-standing regulations prohibiting firearms on some federal preserves.
The scope of this monumental legislation takes in every national park, wildlife refuge or national monument in America from sea to shining sea. It would allow armed tourists to carry everything from pistols to AK-47s and other assorted assault weapons.
Bambi, beware.
But, wait, it gets better. Neither of the distinguished gentlemen from Pennsylvania had the guts to introduce this steaming cow flop as a piece of standalone legislation.
Instead, they joined the clever cabal who affixed this Davy Crockett throwback to the credit-card reform bill in the cloistered confines of a committee room before quietly passing it in a "public" vote on Tuesday.
Now, you might ask, what does the right to pack a pistol in the park have to do with the need to rein in the bandits who issue credit cards?
About as much as it has to do with voting rights for the District of Columbia. Senate sidedoor specialists tacked this same amendment onto a bill to give D.C. a vote in the House of Representatives .
Gotta give it to the gun lobby. They leave no stone unturned because, every time they flip one over, a compliant senator comes scurrying out.
What makes this one so special is that it is the Senate's attempt to reverse a ruling of the Obama administration and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The Bush administration had issued an edict permitting carry privileges in the parks. A district court, responding to a lawsuit filed by CeaseFire Pa. and other gun-control advocates, issued an injunction that prohibited the enforcement of the Bush decree.
The gun lobby started turning over stones and came up with 66 senators who couldn't wait to hang this thing off of something that was likely to be enacted.
They had enough guts to stand up to the president, a federal court and the Interior Department. But they cower in the face of the gun lobby.
Of course, they see it differently. This is about the right to bear arms and the U.S. Constitution to hear them tell it. But you never hear them tell it.
It "would essentially make rules for transporting firearms in and through National Parks the same as on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service," Casey aide Larry Smar said. "That's why he voted for it."
Specter's office took a similar position.
Sen. Specter "voted to uphold the Second Amendment and provide consistency in firearms policy across federal public lands, most of which currently permit firearm possession," his office told me.
"They can say anything they want to," said CeaseFire Pa. board chairman Phil Goldsmith. "But they did it just because the NRA has wanted it for so long.
"These clowns are dealing with an explosive issue. If they want it, let them put in a clean bill."
"It [the vote] was taken in the light of day," Smar points out. "It's in the public record."
That's important. They will have a record to show their handlers in the gun lobby that they tried to do their bidding.
Chances are that the amendment will get washed out when the House and Senate reconcile separate versions of the credit-card bill.
But you can't turn your back on some of these guys.
Until we can contribute as much to their campaigns as the NRA does, a lot of these lawmakers will be more beholden to the gun lobby than to us. *
Send e-mail to smithel@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http://go.philly.com/smith
