- Team Pages
- Charlotte Bobcats
- Carolina Panthers
- Charlotte Checkers
- Charlotte Knights
- Charlotte 49ers
- Davidson Wildcats
INTERIOR SECRETARY
Proposal to ease gun ban in parks
Plan would allow concealed weapons inside wildlife refuges
MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON --
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed new regulations Wednesday to allow people to carry a concealed weapon in some national parks and wildlife refuges.The new rules would allow someone to carry a loaded weapon in a park or refuge if the person has a permit for a concealed weapon and the state where the park or refuge is located allows guns in parks, Kempthorne said.
The proposal would overturn a 25-year-old regulation that has restricted loaded guns. The regulations require that guns be unloaded and placed somewhere that is not easily accessible, such as in a car trunk.
The proposal would incorporate current state laws authorizing the possession of concealed firearms "while continuing to maintain important provisions to ensure visitor safety and resource protection," he said.
Park rangers, retirees and conservation groups protested, saying it will lead to confusion.
"This is purely and simply a politically driven effort to solve a problem that doesn't exist," said Bill Wade, Coalition of National Park Service Retirees chairman.
There is no data to suggest the public would be served by allowing visitors to possess concealed handguns, Wade and others said. They cited statistics showing national parks are among the safest places in the country.
"This proposed regulation increases the risk to visitors, employees and wildlife rather than reducing it," Wade said.
Interior Department spokesman Chris Paolino said the rule change would give great weight to state and local laws. In Washington, for instance, which has a lot of national park land, guns would not be allowed since the city has banned handguns.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., called the rule change confusing.
"This change makes no sense. It would create an incoherent, ineffective and inconsistent patchwork of policies," she said, noting that in some cases, rules would be different within the same national park. For example, Death Valley National Park is in both California and Nevada. California prohibits loaded and accessible weapons in state parks, while Nevada does not, she said.
"So which state law would apply at Death Valley National Park?" Feinstein said. "This sort of inconsistency would be an open invitation to poachers, would be almost impossible to enforce and would seriously place public safety at risk."
Paolino said that in a park that straddles more than one state, the law would differ depending on where a person was.
"When you cross the state boundary, those laws would change, depending on which state you venture into," Paolino said.
The public has 60 days to comment on the proposal, published Wednesday in the Federal Register.
