Omnibus Lands Bill Threatens Second Amendment Rights

Floor Speech

Omnibus Lands Bill Threatens Second Amendment Rights

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis) for 3 minutes.

Mrs. LUMMIS. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise to support the Hastings amendment to the omnibus lands bill. I want to give you two examples why and they couldn't be farther apart and still be in America.

One is here in Washington, D.C. I had a friend who worked for the Federal Government who was getting threatening phone calls from a disgruntled former employee. She was an older woman who lived alone and worked for an agency here in the Federal Government. And so she got a concealed weapons permit to protect herself and was commuting in and out of D.C. to an adjacent State. Having that concealed weapon would have been illegal under the new judge's ruling, which is why the Hastings amendment to the omnibus lands bill needs to be adopted.

Now here is my example from the West. It is springtime. We're just starting to fix fence after a long winter that broke down some of the fences. When you're sitting on the ground fixing a fence and you're sitting right next to a rattlesnake, it can be very disconcerting. So a number of us carry weapons while we're fixing fence. If you let a weapon be hidden under your coat, even accidentally, you need a concealed weapons permit. So some people get concealed weapons permits and carry a weapon while they're fixing fence. Well, if you happen to be one of those people who is also driving between Cody, Wyoming and Jackson, Wyoming, you're going to go through Yellowstone National Park. That is your commute. And it would be illegal to have that weapon under this recent judge's ruling.

Mr. Speaker, both the Bush and the Obama administration have pushed forward with a rule to allow the carrying of concealed weapons on these lands subject to local State laws. By doing so, they bring these public lands in line with millions of acres of BLM and Forest Service lands where the application of local gun laws have guided our public land managers well. It took just one U.S. District Judge to throw that consistency out the window, but this Congress has the opportunity to renew it should the Democrat leadership in the House allow just one simple amendment to address the protection of our second amendment rights. Sadly, they are refusing to do so, placing the importance of a political win on the public lands omnibus bill above the constitutional rights of our citizenry to keep and bear arms.

I urge the Rules Committee and the House Democrat leadership to reconsider their priorities and to allow us to protect second amendment rights when we consider the public lands bill tomorrow.

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