Camp-Fire? Guns Now Legal in National Parks

Bman505 · #1 02-23-2010, 08:34 AM

The fact that a new law allowing loaded guns in national parks went into effect on the same day as rules imposing restrictions on credit card companies is no coincidence: In a nice illustration of the way things work in Congress, the guns bill was attached as an amendment to the (completely-unrelated) credit card legislation back in May.

The new rule allows people to carry firearms, including semi-automatic weapons, in most national parks and wildlife refuges, so long as they follow the gun laws of the state. (That could get a little complicated, as more than 30 parks occupy land in multiple states.) As the Los Angeles Times points out, that means people can now carry concealed weapons while camping in places like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.

Critics, including former directors of the National Park Service, complain that the rule marks parks more dangerous: They argue that the decision to overturn a 1983 law visitors mandating that visitors had to unload and disassemble their guns and place them somewhere not-easily-accessible increases the prospect of violence. The new rule is "a risky change that will endanger families, hikers, those who work in these places and the park rangers themselves," as a Ventura County Star editorial put it.

"When you are at a campfire and people are getting loud and boisterous next to you, you used to have to worry about them quieting down. Now you have to worry about when they will start shooting," Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told the Associated Press.

Defenders of the new rule like David Codrea counter that the rule won't legalize murder or poaching.

"An otherwise peaceable armed citizen who gets by just fine with his guns outside park boundaries won't suddenly undergo a personality transformation once he crosses a line on a map," he argues. "And a criminal, who is not predisposed to obeying rules, won't alter his behavior one way or another."

The new rule is a reminder of how, despite Republican fears that President Obama and the Democratic Congress would set limits on gun ownership and freedom, Democrats have largely embraced traditionally-Republican positions on gun rights over the past year. The amendment to the credit card bill making the new rule passed with the support of 67 senators -- 27 of whom were Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

This story from CBS News

sinclair · #2 03-12-2010, 08:37 PM

When you first posted this, I read it and just get angry when I read the comments of legal morons like the Brady Campaign folks. Came back to it tonight and figured out how to avoid the anger. I focused on the beautiful background picture which the gun-hand overlays above and decided to identify it. Took about three minutes to find it. Yosemite Falls in California. Here is a higher resolution shot.

Yosemite falls
http://wallpaper-s.org/42__Yosemite_...th_America.htm

AGust82 · #3 03-13-2010, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bman505

"When you are at a campfire and people are getting loud and boisterous next to you, you used to have to worry about them quieting down. Now you have to worry about when they will start shooting," Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told the Associated Press.

This is the funniest thing I have read in a long time! I laugh a little more every time I read it.

Jizzle · #4 03-17-2010, 05:36 PM

I think the only people that have to worry about the people at the campfire next to them starting to fire is the brady campaigners. But, they started it lol.

MasterBlaster · #5 03-20-2010, 11:36 PM

In my state we also just had the law pass that allows the carry inside drinking establishments unless the owner posts otherwise.
It has caused a big stir but to me if you going concealed anyway then no one would be the wiser? unless your Plaxico Burress and you get drunk then whip it out and shoot yourself in the leg and then everyone will know. (

)