WASHINGTON — Advocates of gun rights are poised to win a congressional victory that eluded them under a Republican president.
To the frustration and discouragement of many Democrats, House and Senate lawmakers and aides say it now appears likely that President Barack Obama will this week sign into law a provision allowing visitors to national parks and refuges to carry loaded and concealed weapons.
The White House is lukewarm at best on the gun provision. But the Democrats who now control both Congress and the White House appear ready to allow it to survive rather than derail a consumer-friendly credit-card measure that Obama is eager to sign as Congress heads off for a Memorial Day recess.
“Timing is everything in politics,” said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., the champion of the gun proposal.
A majority of Democrats in the House and Senate still typically come down on the side of gun control. But the fact that they have been outmaneuvered by Republicans on gun issues is rooted in the fact that recently swollen Democratic ranks include senators and House members who represent Western states and more rural areas where gun ownership is popular and deemed sacrosanct.
Under the proposal, people who are otherwise authorized under state law to have firearms would be entitled to have them in national parks and wildlife refuges unless a state law prohibits it. Currently, firearms must be unloaded and secured on those national lands. The New York Times
