Park Rangers Against Lifting Gun Restrictions

Park Rangers Against Lifting Gun Restrictions



March 2008

The Bush administration is taking 
aim at longstanding regulations that ban individuals from bringing loaded 
weapons into many U.S. national parks. New rules that would relax the 
firearm restrictions will be formally proposed by the U.S. Interior 
Department within the next two months, despite fierce opposition from 
current and retired park rangers who argue the changes are dangerous and 
unnecessary. 
The proposal is "a terrible idea," said Doug Morris, a retired park 
superintendent and member of the Coalition of National Park Service 
Retirees. "These rules work and have long contributed to the indisputable 
fact that our national parks are among the safest places in America." 

Firearms were first banned in national parks in the 1930s in a bid to curb 
poaching. The rules were eased in 1983 by the Reagan administration to 
allow visitors to national parks and national wildlife refuges to possess 
firearms so long as they are unloaded or "packed, cased or stored in a 
manner that will prevent their ready use." 
Advocates of the regulations contend they fairly balance the rights of gun 
owners with the desire to preserve the fundamental character of the 
national park system. 
The rules are an essential part of efforts to protect wildlife and prevent 
poaching, Morris told reporters during a conference call last week. 
He added that relaxing the restrictions would also jeopardize the safety 
of park employees and visitors. 
"Routine disagreements in camp grounds, parking lots, restaurants and 
lodges are more likely to turn lethal just as they often do in the cities 
and rural areas around parks where state laws provide for easy access to 
loaded firearms," said Morris. 
Other park groups, notably the Association of National Park Rangers, the 
Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, and the National Parks 
Conservation Association agree with Morris and have urged the Interior 
Department to resist calls for the change. 
Officials with the Park Service have also shown opposition to the 
revisions. A letter sent in January 2007 to a Virginia gun group by Karen 
Taylor-Goodrich, the Park Service's associate director of visitor and 
resource protection, said the agency does not support any change in the 
current regulation. 
"This is not about guns or parks - it is about politics," Bryan Faehner, 
legislative representative for the National Parks Conservation 
Association, said during the February 25 press call with Morris and other 
critics of the proposal. "The rules are working fine." 
But a considerable number of lawmakers disagree, arguing that the 
regulations violate on the constitutional gun rights of U.S. citizens. 
Lawmakers from both parties began openly pressuring Interior Secretary 
Dirk Kempthorne on the issue late last year. 
The rules "infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners" who want to 
transport or carry firearms within national parks and national wildlife 
refuges, a group of 47 senators said in a December 14, 2007 letter to the 
Interior chief.

Carrying loaded guns is permitted in national parks and reserves 
where hunting is allowed such as New Jersey's Pinelands National 
Reserve.
The letter, signed by 39 Republicans and eight Democrats, noted that other 
federal land management agencies do not have the same restrictions on 
firearms. 
The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service follow state laws on 
firearms, as do the 61 units of the National Park Service that permit 
hunting. 
"These inconsistencies in firearms regulations for public lands are 
confusing, burdensome and unnecessary," wrote the letter's lead authors, 
Senators Michael Crapo, an Idaho Republican, and Max Baucus, a Montana 
Democrat. 
On February 11, a group of four additional senators sent another letter to 
Kempthorne, echoing the argument that state gun laws should govern firearm 
regulations in all national parks and refuges. 
The current rules "preempt state regulatory frameworks for transporting 
and carrying firearms, thus invalidating concealed weapons permits and 
other state laws that allow law-abiding citizens to transport and carry 
firearms," the senators wrote in the second letter. 
Kempthorne appears to agree, informing the senators in a February 22 
letter that the Interior Department would propose changes to the rules 
along the lines they have suggested. 
"This administration supports the long-standing tradition of affording 
states the right to determine those who may lawfully possess a firearm 
within their jurisdiction," Kempthorne wrote. 
He said a rule change would be proposed and put out for public comment by 
April 30. 

The announcement was hailed by the nation's leading gun lobby, which has 
pushed lawmakers and the administration to relax the rules. 
"Law-abiding citizens should not be prohibited from protecting themselves 
and their families while enjoying America's National Parks and wildlife 
refuges," according to Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle 
Association. 
"Under this proposal, federal parks and wildlife refuges will mirror the 
state firearm laws for state parks," Cox said. "This is an important step 
in the right direction." 
Members of both the House and the Senate have introduced legislation to 
revoke the firearm restrictions. In addition, Senator Tom Coburn, an 
Oklahoma Republican, has announced plans to try and add an amendment to a 
public lands bill to repeal the regulations. 
Critics of the change hope to rally the public to keep the existing laws 
in place, arguing that the revisions seek to fix a nonexistent problem. 
The idea that the current rules are inconsistent and hard to understand is 
"ludicrous," Morris told reporters. "What could be easier to understand 
than regulations which apply a longstanding single set of rules throughout 
our system of national parks?" 
Critics of the proposed change note that if parks had to defer to state 
gun laws, individuals could carry loaded semi-automatic weapons in 
campgrounds and park trails in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. 

The efforts to change the rules show "a total disregard for how our 
society values our national parks," Morris said. "Experience tells us that 
park visitors, including hunters and gun owners, seem to understand that 
parks are special places and that loaded guns are not needed and not 
appropriate." 

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