National Parks are treated differently than any other type of public lands. One of the prohibitions over the years has been that carrying loaded, concealed weapons in National Parks has been against the rule.
Gun advocates have been pushing the Bush Administration to lift both that ban and another against loaded, concealed weapons on National Wildlife Refuges. That has angered many national park and U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees.
In a recent survey, 77 percent of 1,400 present and former employees of the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are against the change. The results were released recently in a new report by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees which now has more than 670 members.
According to the survey, 75 percent feel there will be an increase in opportunistic or impulse wildlife killings in parks and refuges if the law changes and 83 percent anticipate that the proposal will increase the overall level of complexity for management of their park or refuge.
“We think the proposed rule is manufactured and driven politically to fix a problem that doesn’t exist,” said CNPSR executive council chair Bill Wade. “Data show that parks are among the safest places to be in this country. Moreover, we believe it will create more problems than it can possibly fix. It is likely to alter, over time, the friendly atmosphere visitors look forward to in parks, where they go to get away from the day to day pressures and influences of their everyday lives, including worry about guns.”
— Tom