How a Last-Minute Amendment to a Credit Card Law Rewrote the Rules for Guns in National Parks

Amid reports of a rise in backcountry shooting, a look back at the maneuvering that brought more firearms into America's most protected open spaces.

http://www.thetrace.org/2015/08/national-forests-parks-firearms-gun/

The use and possession of firearms in national forests has always been generally permitted. But a few years ago, gun rights advocates fought a battle to change the policy for the forests’ more-protected cousins, National Parks. While the two types of wilderness preserves are often located adjacent to one another . . . National Parks largely forbid the possession of firearms.
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The first firearm regulations on National Park grounds were put in place in 1936, when the Department of the Interior restricted gun possession and use to prevent poaching. The policy was enhanced in 1983 to prohibit possessing, carrying, or using a firearm outside of certain approved areas and hunting seasons, with an exception for firearms kept in a car or mobile home “when such implements are rendered inoperable or packed, cased or stored in a manner that will prevent their ready use.”
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It’s a policy that remained for a quarter century, until its demise six years (ago) under unexpected circumstances. Elizabeth Warren — not yet the junior senator from Massachusetts — played a prominent role in securing the passage of the Credit CARD Act of 2009.
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Soon after the compromise announcement (that garnered enough votes to pass), an amendment to the bill was introduced, quickly voted on, and passed. This new measure had nothing to do with borrowers or lenders. Instead, Section 512 carried the title “Protecting Americans from Violent Crimes,” and it dismantled all existing federal restrictions on firearm possession for visitors to the national park system outside Alaska. State laws — including concealed carry statutes — would govern national forest areas instead.