Rehberg sponsors bill to prohibit gun bans on fed land

Montana's sole member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Denny Rehberg, sponsored a bill Tuesday to ensure that people cannot be banned from carrying guns on land administered by the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management, including areas designated as national monuments.

"There's a large segment of powerful Washington, D.C., elites that thinks the Second Amendment is obsolete and unnecessary," Rehberg, a Republican, said in a press release. "These progressives envision a world where only criminals and agents of the state are armed, and will use every tactic at their disposal to make this a reality.

It's up to Congress to protect these rights from overreaching bureaucrats, and that's exactly what this legislation seeks to do." Rehberg, who is running for re-election against Democrat Dennis McDonald and Libertarian Mike Fellows, sponsored the bill for himself and for fellow Republican Reps. Paul Broun of Georgia and Rob Bishop of Utah.

Congress last year passed a law allowing people who are legal gun owners to carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. But because nothing prohibits federal agencies from banning guns from land administered by the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management or prohibits the president from restricting guns through monument designations under the Antiquities Act, Rehberg, Broun and Bishop sponsored the legislation.

The bill almost immediately was endorsed by Second Amendment advocacy groups.

"It has been (a National Rifle Association) priority to end the patchwork of gun laws on America's public lands, and we are pleased that members of Congress are introducing this critical legislation," Chris W. Cox, the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist, said in a press release provided by Rehberg's office. "This step will bring clarity and uniformity for lawabiding gun owners visiting our nation's public lands. NRA will continue to support the American people's God-given right of self-defense." The Montana Shooting Sports Association joined the NRA in its endorsement.

"Thanks to Denny for introducing this bill, an important, proactive measure that will prevent administrative curtailment of our cherished right to bear arms," Gary Marbut, president of the association, said.

T h e Ro c k y Mo u n t a i n El k Foundation also hailed the proposed legislation.

"We applaud Congressmen Rehberg, Bishop and Broun for taking the lead in making sure all outdoorsmen can continue to pursue their passion on Forest Service and BLM lands," foundation President and CEO David Allen said. "It's vitally important to the future of our outdoor traditions, recreation, conservation and economic impact — but also for the future of wildlife management "For these same reasons, we are very concerned about future proposed federal land designations that have the potential to inhibit sporting activity, access and opportunity as we know it today," Allen added. "We are disappointed that RMEF and other similar wildlife conservation groups have not been included so far in the planning process to re-designate significant amounts of public land as new national monument land." In the release, Rehberg cited his opposition to the Department of the Interior looking to designate new land as national monuments.

Rehberg joined other members of Congress earlier this year in demanding more information about a Department of the Interior memo discussing 13 million acres of land, including land in Montana, that could be designated as monuments. He later sponsored legislation that would require congressional approval to create new or expand existing monuments in Montana.

To date, Wyoming is the only state where that is the case.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has said that the memo was a discussion of possibilities only, and that no plans were in place to move forward in creating monuments on any of the land listed in the memo. He said that full public input would be involved in the creation of any national monuments.