SHIVAN
02-19-10, 21:26
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/gun-toting-visitors-heading-to-national-parks/19353107
Gun-Toting Visitors Heading to National Parks
Andrea Stone - Senior Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) -- Teddy Roosevelt couldn't bring a gun into
Yellowstone National Park, but soon anyone with a permit will be able
to shoulder a shotgun as they watch Old Faithful erupt.
At Virginia's Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts outside
Washington, summer concertgoers will be able to pack a pistol with
their picnic on the lawn. Along the rim of the Grand Canyon,
rifle-toting visitors will stand next to unarmed tourists from abroad.
And while Civil War re-enactors will still flock with their historic
muskets to the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, modern-day
militiamen will be able to retrace Pickett's Charge carrying
modern-day weapons.
A new rule in effect Monday will end nearly a century-old ban on
firearms in America's national parks and wildlife refuges. Visitors
can bring concealed, loaded guns with them on vacation if they are
legal under the laws of the state they are in. Some 40 states allow
people to carry firearms with a permit. The park service Web site will
provide links to state Web sites so visitors can check which rules
apply.
The change passed on a bipartisan vote in May as an amendment to an
Obama administration credit card reform bill. It grew out of changes
sought in the final months by the Bush administration and gun rights
advocates.
"This new rule is welcome," said National Rifle Association spokesman
Andrew Arulanandam. "Violent crimes do occur in our national parks,
which have become havens for drug trafficking and drug production.
It's reasonable for law-abiding people to have the means to protect
themselves from predators, whether it's the four-legged or two-legged
variety."
The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees and the Fraternal
Order of Police lobbied unsuccessfully against the rule change.
"It's a bad idea," the coalition's Bill Wade said. "It's a significant
departure from what the public expects in the national parks. They've
always been a sanctuary where people can go and feel safe."
Violent crimes -- homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault --
have been declining for more than a decade in the national parks,
according to FBI statistics. The rate for those crimes in 2008, the
latest figures available, was 0.13 per 100,000 recreational park
visitors. The nationwide crime rate: 454.5 per 100,000.
Even in states where carrying a gun is legal, visitors in all but 40
parks where hunting is permitted will be barred from firing their
weapons.
Guns will still be prohibited inside visitor centers, offices,
maintenance facilities or other buildings where park employees work on
a regular basis. The rules are murkier in hotels, restaurants, gift
shops and other nongovernment facilities run as private concessions on
park property. Park Service spokesman David Barna said that "in
theory," guns could be carried inside those facilities, including
dormitories where young, seasonal employees stay.
"The burden is on the public to not only know state law but know what
state you're in," Barna said. He noted that the Appalachian Trail runs
through nine states from Georgia to Maine and across a patchwork of
attitudes toward guns. Yellowstone sprawls across three states, while
Great Smoky Mountains comes under the laws of Tennessee and North
Carolina.
Park employees are undergoing training on local laws. Barna said some
staff have expressed fears for their safety -- until now, anyone
carrying a weapon could be arrested by park police. But others,
especially staffers in the West, are more comfortable with the idea.
Most, however, "would prefer not to deal with this," he said.
Barna doubts many of the park system's 275 million annual visitors
will come toting heat this summer, when the peak vacation period
begins. But he does expect the first few months under the new rule to
bring "people who want to express their Second Amendment right to bear
arms" and plenty of macho photo ops by park entrance signs.
Even if few park visitors flaunt their firearms, knowing the person
next to your family at an evening campfire or on a ranger-led hike
might have a gun will have a chilling effect, critics say.
"Visitors come to the parks to try to leave behind their day-to-day
worries," said Scot McElveen, president of the Association of National
Park Rangers. "Some of that escapism is from worrying about crime or
guns."
The ban on firearms dates back before 1916, when the national park
system was founded to protect the country's wildlife as much as its
wilderness. Even President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid hunter, wasn't
exempt from the prohibition when he visited Yellowstone, then run by
the army, in 1903.
According to historian Douglas Brinkley's "The Wilderness Warrior:
Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America," the park's
superintendent "issued a stern statement declaring that the
president's gun would be sealed by the U.S. Army when he entered the
park, just as with every other citizen."
"It was a zone dedicated to the preservation of nature," Brinkley told
AOL News. "In the same way that you don't carry a gun to an airport,
there are places where you don't carry a gun in this country, and a
national park is one."
Gun-Toting Visitors Heading to National Parks
Andrea Stone - Senior Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) -- Teddy Roosevelt couldn't bring a gun into
Yellowstone National Park, but soon anyone with a permit will be able
to shoulder a shotgun as they watch Old Faithful erupt.
At Virginia's Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts outside
Washington, summer concertgoers will be able to pack a pistol with
their picnic on the lawn. Along the rim of the Grand Canyon,
rifle-toting visitors will stand next to unarmed tourists from abroad.
And while Civil War re-enactors will still flock with their historic
muskets to the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania, modern-day
militiamen will be able to retrace Pickett's Charge carrying
modern-day weapons.
A new rule in effect Monday will end nearly a century-old ban on
firearms in America's national parks and wildlife refuges. Visitors
can bring concealed, loaded guns with them on vacation if they are
legal under the laws of the state they are in. Some 40 states allow
people to carry firearms with a permit. The park service Web site will
provide links to state Web sites so visitors can check which rules
apply.
The change passed on a bipartisan vote in May as an amendment to an
Obama administration credit card reform bill. It grew out of changes
sought in the final months by the Bush administration and gun rights
advocates.
"This new rule is welcome," said National Rifle Association spokesman
Andrew Arulanandam. "Violent crimes do occur in our national parks,
which have become havens for drug trafficking and drug production.
It's reasonable for law-abiding people to have the means to protect
themselves from predators, whether it's the four-legged or two-legged
variety."
The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees and the Fraternal
Order of Police lobbied unsuccessfully against the rule change.
"It's a bad idea," the coalition's Bill Wade said. "It's a significant
departure from what the public expects in the national parks. They've
always been a sanctuary where people can go and feel safe."
Violent crimes -- homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault --
have been declining for more than a decade in the national parks,
according to FBI statistics. The rate for those crimes in 2008, the
latest figures available, was 0.13 per 100,000 recreational park
visitors. The nationwide crime rate: 454.5 per 100,000.
Even in states where carrying a gun is legal, visitors in all but 40
parks where hunting is permitted will be barred from firing their
weapons.
Guns will still be prohibited inside visitor centers, offices,
maintenance facilities or other buildings where park employees work on
a regular basis. The rules are murkier in hotels, restaurants, gift
shops and other nongovernment facilities run as private concessions on
park property. Park Service spokesman David Barna said that "in
theory," guns could be carried inside those facilities, including
dormitories where young, seasonal employees stay.
"The burden is on the public to not only know state law but know what
state you're in," Barna said. He noted that the Appalachian Trail runs
through nine states from Georgia to Maine and across a patchwork of
attitudes toward guns. Yellowstone sprawls across three states, while
Great Smoky Mountains comes under the laws of Tennessee and North
Carolina.
Park employees are undergoing training on local laws. Barna said some
staff have expressed fears for their safety -- until now, anyone
carrying a weapon could be arrested by park police. But others,
especially staffers in the West, are more comfortable with the idea.
Most, however, "would prefer not to deal with this," he said.
Barna doubts many of the park system's 275 million annual visitors
will come toting heat this summer, when the peak vacation period
begins. But he does expect the first few months under the new rule to
bring "people who want to express their Second Amendment right to bear
arms" and plenty of macho photo ops by park entrance signs.
Even if few park visitors flaunt their firearms, knowing the person
next to your family at an evening campfire or on a ranger-led hike
might have a gun will have a chilling effect, critics say.
"Visitors come to the parks to try to leave behind their day-to-day
worries," said Scot McElveen, president of the Association of National
Park Rangers. "Some of that escapism is from worrying about crime or
guns."
The ban on firearms dates back before 1916, when the national park
system was founded to protect the country's wildlife as much as its
wilderness. Even President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid hunter, wasn't
exempt from the prohibition when he visited Yellowstone, then run by
the army, in 1903.
According to historian Douglas Brinkley's "The Wilderness Warrior:
Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America," the park's
superintendent "issued a stern statement declaring that the
president's gun would be sealed by the U.S. Army when he entered the
park, just as with every other citizen."
"It was a zone dedicated to the preservation of nature," Brinkley told
AOL News. "In the same way that you don't carry a gun to an airport,
there are places where you don't carry a gun in this country, and a
national park is one."