National Parks to Allow Right-to-Carry
Fairfax, Va. -
The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the National Park
Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has announced the final amended version of
its changes to rules on carrying of firearms in national parks and
wildlife refuges. DOI’s move will restore the rights of law-abiding gun
owners who wish to transport and carry firearms for lawful purposes on
most DOI lands, and will make federal law consistent with the state law
in which these public lands are located. The National Rifle Association
(NRA) led the effort to amend the existing policy regarding the
carrying and transportation of firearms on these federal lands.
“Today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of the Interior brings
clarity and uniformity for law-abiding gun owners visiting our national
parks,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “We are pleased that the
Interior Department recognizes the right of law-abiding citizens to
protect themselves and their families while enjoying America's National
Parks and wildlife refuges.”
DOI announced the rule change today and will publish the new
regulations in the Federal Register. The new regulations allow
right-to-carry permit holders to exercise their Second Amendment rights
on national park and wildlife refuges in those states that recognize
such permits. The move will provide consistency across our nation’s
federal lands and put an end to the patchwork of regulations that
governed different lands managed by different federal agencies. In the
past, Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands allowed the
carrying of firearms, while lands managed by DOI did not.
The NRA has long held that amendments to those regulations were
needed to reflect the changed legal situations with respect to state
laws on carrying firearms. Earlier this year, fifty-one U.S. Senators
sent a strong bipartisan letter to the DOI supporting the move to make
state firearms laws applicable to national park lands and refuges.
“These changes respect the Second Amendment rights of honest
citizens as they enjoy our public lands,” concluded Cox. “We applaud
the Interior Department’s efforts to amend these out of date
regulations.”
To read the original press release on the NRA-ILA site, click here.
Click here to see our concealed-carry debate.
POST YOUR COMMENT BELOW
Sign up for the OV Daily Newsletter
OV Social
(We are pleased to post the following press release from the National Parks Conservation Association and other coalition partners).
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite concerns raised by every living former director of the National Park Service, several ranger organizations, retired superintendents, and thousands of national park visitors, the Bush Administration today put the safety of national park visitors and wildlife at risk by finalizing a decision to allow concealed, loaded firearms at 388 of 391 national park sites.
The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, the Association of National Park Rangers, the Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, and the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) expressed deep disappointment and concern over the Bush Administration’s firearm regulation, published today in the Federal Register, which overturned a Reagan-era regulation that allowed unloaded and safely stowed firearms in national parks.
“Once again, political leaders in the Bush Administration have ignored the preferences of the American public by succumbing to political pressure, in this case generated by the National Rifle Association. This regulation will put visitors, employees and precious resources of the National Park System at risk. We will do everything possible to overturn it and return to a common-sense approach to guns in national parks that has been working for decades,” said Bill Wade, President of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.
The Administration received almost 140,000 comments, the vast majority of which opposed the proposal to allow loaded guns in national parks.
Regrettably, the final regulation is even more extreme than the Administration’s original proposal, and permits concealed and loaded guns to be carried in national parks located in any states with concealed carry laws, not just those that allow guns in their state parks as originally proposed.
Only the three national park units in Wisconsin and Illinois, which do not issue concealed carry permits, are excluded.
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, there were 1.65 violent crimes per 100,000 national park visitors in 2006—making national parks some of the safest places in the United States.
The new regulation could increase the risk for impulse shootings of wildlife, and risk the safety of visitors and rangers. Despite the potential affect on national park wildlife and resources, the Administration did not conduct an environmental review as required by law.
“Land management agencies have worked diligently over the years to successfully create the different sets of expectations amongst the visiting public to reflect the differing levels of resource protections for each specific area,” said John Waterman, President of the Park Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police. “National parks are different from other public lands. The visitor population expects, demands, and gets a higher degree of protection, enforcement, and restriction in a national park. Furthermore, while national parks are amongst the safest areas to be in, the toll on the U.S. Park Ranger is high: U.S. Park Rangers are the most assaulted Federal Officers in the country. This vague, wide-open regulation will only increase the danger U.S. Park Rangers face.”
In a letter sent to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne on April 3, 2008, seven former directors of the National Park Service said that there is no need to change the existing regulation.
“In all our years with the National Park Service, we experienced very few instances in which this limited regulation created confusion or resistance,” the letter stated. “There is no evidence that any potential problems that one can imagine arising from the existing regulations might overwhelm the good they are known to do.”
“American citizens have traditionally valued the professional opinions of park rangers when it comes to managing national parks,” said Association of National Park Rangers President Scot McElveen. “In the professional opinion of ANPR, this regulation change will have negative impacts on park wildlife. Our experience in operating parks creates disbelief that wildlife poaching rates will not increase under the new regulation. We oppose this rash regulatory change.”