U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, supports allowing gun owners to take firearms into national parks, she said in a teleconference with the public on Thursday.

She said gun ownership and rumors of potential limitations on firearms and ammunition are big issues among her constituents in Arizona.

"Everywhere I go in the district, people ask me 'what are you doing to protect gun owners?'" Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick voted in favor of an amendment in May (which was tucked inside credit card REFORM legislation) to allow gun owners to bring firearms into national parks.

She opposes limits on semi-automatic weapons and supports legislation allowing gun owners to take firearms across state lines or into cities.

Callers repeatedly referenced perceived pending restrictions on gun ownership, which they had learned about via e-mails or friends.

Kirkpatrick said most of the proposals were rumor. "I do not see any major, concerted effort to take away our guns," Kirkpatrick told the callers.

One caller asked that citizens be allowed to easily buy and own fully automatic firearms, including AK-47s.

She agreed they should and called firearm ownership a "fundamental right" that pre-dated the U.S. Constitution.

"I agree with you," she told him. "I think people should be able to legally purchase and carry the gun that they want."

HEALTH CARE BILL NEEDS WORK

Callers thanked her for the teleconference, but four callers in just over an hour said they wanted to talk about her vote in support of recent health care legislation.

"I am very disappointed in your vote on the health care bill," said one, who called it a "power grab by our left-wing leaders."

Said another: "It would have been better had you addressed an issue like health care tonight rather than gun control — which you just said was not a big issue."

Kirkpatrick said the recent House health care bill "had some things that I thought were essential in moving health care reform forward," such as increasing market competition and eliminating insurance companies' abilities to deny people insurance because they have health problems.

"There are lots of things I still don't like about the bill, so we'll keep working on it," Kirkpatrick said.

Her spokesman later said she wanted more scholarship and loan repayment programs for medical and nursing students to add more medical professionals to the field, and more tax credits for small businesses providing health insurance.

VOTING DEMOCRATIC MOST OF TIME

Another caller asked Kirkpatrick whether she would switch parties and become a Republican.

She replied with a no.

Another pressed a similar point, asking whether she would vote for what Arizonans want or what the national Democratic party wants on some issues.

"I'm an independent," Kirkpatrick responded. "I make up my own mind. I don't vote down party line. That's not the way I operate."

Kirkpatrick has voted with her party 87.6 percent of the time so far in her first term, according to a voting database maintained by the Washington Post.

She planned to spend the first part of the holiday week in Flagstaff, helping at a volunteer food center on Monday and reading to schoolchildren on Tuesday.

Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.