Wayne LaPierre, the executive veep of the NRA wrote this editorial yesterday regarding the pending Department of the Interior’s proposed rule changes for firearms:
Making Parks Safer
In the coming weeks, the U.S. Department of the Interior will announce proposed changes to the rules that bar the carrying and transporting of firearms in national parks. This comes after nearly five years of efforts by NRA-ILA and others to get rid of the rules that prevent law-abiding Right-to-Carry holders and gun owners from having to disarm and store their firearms in an inaccessible part of their vehicle.
Some opponents of the change say that you don’t need access to a firearm in a national park. But these people ignore the fact that park rangers are wearing protective vests and carry semi-automatic rifles for self-defense from predators of the two- and four-legged variety. Heck, back in 2003 the media quoted David Barma, the chief spokesman for the National Park System, as saying, “The most [visitors] used to worry about is running into a grizzly bear. Now there is the specter of violence by a masked alien toting an AK-47.”
But now the media ignores the recent up-tick in violent crime in our national parks. And they ignore the fact that many parts of the national park system are, by their very nature, remote and rugged wilderness areas, where help isn’t just a phone call away.
I’m glad that Congress isn’t ignoring these facts, and I’m very pleased the Department of the Interior is now keeping these facts in mind as they revise and update the rules for our national park system.
Many states (including California, by the way) allow you to keep a firearm handy at your campsite, but if you’re camping on BLM or NPS land, weapons not under lock and key are currently banned. The last time I was in a National Park, my guns were safe, but I wasn’t.
Since National Park Rangers are twelve times more likely to encounter violence than FBI agents, then it is logical to conclude that park visitors share that heightened risk. It just makes no sense to continue the ban because, as we all know, criminals are ignoring it!
I hope this rule change is made in spite of some of the Dicks in Congress.
I had some questions about disposal methods for dud rounds. I looked in a couple of on-line forums and found some good discussion on the topic. Amidst one learned discussion thread, I found the following entry:
A woman was forced by the Transportation Security Administration to remove her nipple rings before she was allowed to board a flight, a local attorney said today.
