Gun rights on the march in Congress?

Expanding on (and updating) yesterday's post about the possibility of a "guns and national parks" bill being signed into law--things are moving quickly. Last evening, the House decided to split the gun amendment off from the credit card bill, in a bill of its own.

The House Rules Committee decided by voice vote Tuesday evening to split apart the credit card bill passed by the Senate Tuesday, slicing out an amendment added by Senate Republicans that would allow possession of firearms in National Parks.

That gun amendment will be voted on separately and then will be recombined with the bill before it goes to the White House. Both votes are scheduled for Wednesday.

By splitting the bill in two, Democrats can vote for the credit card reform portion without also voting for the gun language. The gun amendment is still likely to pass, backed by Republicans and swing-district Democrats.

That kinda sounds to me like bad news for the gun bill, since Democrats could now vote against it, and still vote for the credit card reform bill, but it seems that the gun rights bill is expected to pass.

The tactic seems to be working, with Democrats acknowledging that pro-gun members rule in both chambers.

"There clearly is a majority in both houses that the Second Amendment rights ... that relate to the national parks are too restricted," Hoyer told reporters Tuesday. "The reality is that a majority in both houses agree with that position."

There's apparently even some reason to believe that the DC gun rights bill could get back on track.

Hoyer vowed Tuesday that the D.C. voting rights bill would pass "one way or another."

"It's gonna happen," he said.

Of course, whether gun rights for DC residents are worth raping the Constitution to give DC a voting representative in Congress is a different question, and I'm inclined to think that going along with an unconstitutional action, because it's tied to something that is laudable, is a dangerous strategy. Still, without the gun rights amendment, the DC voting bill would already have passed, so I guess it can be seen as turning lemons into lemonade (with just a small shot of arsenic mixed in).

I'm still a bit skeptical about the chances of either of these gun rights advances happening, but we'll see.

Update: apparently, Obama would sign the credit card reform bill, even with the guns in parks provision included.

Update II: the guns in parks measure passed 279 to 147. Is it worth it?