Tue, Feb 19, 2008 (2:07 a.m.)

A congressional bill to protect wilderness areas around the country that has been years in the making and has finally earned bipartisan support is being held up by an Oklahoma senator who wants to add an unrelated amendment.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, after unsuccessfully battling the bill on the grounds its modest cost would be too much of a burden on the U.S. Treasury, is trying to sink it by adding language that would allow visitors to national parks to carry loaded guns.

The bill, which would authorize 60 separate wilderness protection proposals for federal lands in numerous states, has little to do with the nation’s national parks. Coburn’s amendment, however, has everything to do with partisan politics.

Sen. John McCain, the Republican front-runner for the GOP nomination for president, is a co-sponsor of Coburn’s amendment. The amendment is perfect for McCain as he attempts to shore up his bona fides with conservatives.

In the past, McCain has angered conservatives by supporting the regulation of gun shows, opposing small handguns that are commonly used in street crimes and advocating for a federal law requiring gun owners, while at home, to keep their firearms locked up.

Aside from giving McCain a recent pro-gun stance to crow about, the amendment puts him in opposition to preservation of federal lands, another position that conservatives would find appealing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has withdrawn the otherwise noncontroversial lands bill at least temporarily because he understands the game Coburn is playing. Any Democrat who voted against the amendment would be branded by Republicans as someone who would “take your guns away.”

The current law governing guns in national parks and on lands governed by the Fish and Wildlife Service also renders the amendment an obvious partisan ploy. Visitors can bring guns with them as long as they are not instantly accessible. This was a law pushed through Congress by none other than the administration of the president that Republicans are now holding up as a role model Ronald Reagan.