Harold Volkmer dies; blunt-talking Congressman fought gun bans
STLtoday.com |
Harold Volkmer was a blunt-talking guy who went to Jefferson City and helped reorganize state government.
Then he got elected to Congress, where he spent 20 years helping Missouri communities fight floods and helped the National Rifle Association beat back efforts to ban assault rifles.
"He wasn't anybody's rubber stamp," said former state Sen. Wayne Goode. "He was his own person."
Mr. Volkmer died Saturday (April 16, 2011) at age 80 at a nursing home in Hannibal after battling pneumonia.
From 1977 to 1997, the Hannibal Democrat represented central and northeastern Missouri. The district sometimes included St. Charles and Franklin counties and part of north St. Louis County.
Mr. Volkmer wasn't just against gun control, he was famous as the NRA's point man in Congress.
He helped stop President George Bush from passing legislation in 1989 to ban the import, manufacture or sale of semiautomatic gun magazines capable of firing more than 15 rounds of ammunition.
While such weapons probably weren't used for hunting, Mr. Volkmer conceded, he said they could be used for target practice. "And that's a sport," he said.
In 1994, he helped defeat President Bill Clinton's crime bill. Mr. Volkmer objected to the proposed ban on assault rifles.
Mr. Volkmer was the primary House sponsor of the McClure-Volkmer Gun Decontrol Act. He was proud of the legislative wrangling that got it done: He got a majority of House members to sign a petition to get the bill out of committee after the chairman pronounced it "dead on arrival."
Many law enforcement organizations opposed the law, which they said made it easier to buy guns. It became law in 1986.
Mr. Volkmer, a deer hunter, said most voters in his district opposed gun control.
"I have a Browning semiautomatic shotgun — a beautiful gun," he told the Post-Dispatch. "You going to say I can't use it anymore?"
Mr. Volkmer grew up in Jefferson City and got his start in politics as a young boy carrying placards for his mother supporting Franklin D. Roosevelt. She taught him to succeed by becoming an insider.
He worked his way through Jefferson City Junior College as a stock boy and butcher at Kroger. In gratitude, he shopped at Kroger the rest of his life.
After graduating from the University of Missouri Law School, he became an assistant state attorney general before serving in the Army.
Back in Missouri, he was elected prosecuting attorney for Marion County in 1960 and then state representative from 1967 through 1976. He served on the "Little Hoover Commission" that led to reorganization of the executive branch in 1974.
In 1976, he was elected to the first of 10 terms in Congress.
He helped pass legislation that got Hannibal's flood wall completed just days before the flood of 1993, and the Flood Relocation Act that helped entire communities move out of flood plains.
His first wife, Shirley, died in 1995. In 1996, he lost a bid for an 11th term to Republican Kenny Hulshof.
While still in Congress, he worked for the NRA as chairman of its Civil Rights Defense Fund, providing legal help to individuals.
After leaving Congress, he served 12 years on the NRA's board of directors.
Mr. Volkmer had a reputation as a workhorse. Even in recent months, as his illness progressed, he used a walker to attend a January meeting of the NRA board.
Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. today at the James O'Donnell Funeral Home in Hannibal. A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Holy Family Catholic Church in Hannibal. Burial will be at Holy Family Catholic Cemetery.
Survivors include his widow, Dian Volkmer; two sons, Jerry Volkmer of Farmington, N.M., and John Volkmer of Chesapeake, Va.; a daughter, Beth Volkmer of Fairfax, Va.; a brother, Paul Volkmer of Jefferson City; and four grandchildren.
Kim Bell of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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