Cary Stayner was arrested in 1999 and charged with the murder of Carole Sund, her fifteen year old daughter Juli, sixteen year old Silvina Pelosso, and park employee Joie Armstrong, in the Yosemite National Park.
Posted on 11/30/2006 9:58:07 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Let’s see how many reasons there are to carry a concealed weapon into a national park.
Perhaps you might encounter a rattlesnake or some other potentially deadly critter that would pose a threat. Perhaps you were with an argumentative acquaintance who had pushed you to the limit in a discussion over, well, gun control. Perhaps a little paranoia had set in since you climbed out of bed that morning and you thought you needed a concealed weapon to ward off any attackers - real or imagined.
Surely there are others, but none of them are particularly legitimate. Yet, outgoing U.S. Sen. George Allen wants to put a cap on his one-term career in the Senate with legislation that would let visitors carry a concealed weapon into a national park.
Such weapons are now banned and they ought to remain banned.
Peter Hardin of Media General News Service detailed Allen’s last legislative hurrah in a story last week. He noted that the Virginia Republican wrote in a letter to the Virginia Gun Owners Association three days before the election that since the secretary of the Interior has refused to repeal the gun ban in national parks, he would introduce legislation to that effect in the lame-duck session of Congress.
With Democrats about to take over Congress, it is not likely that the controversial measure will gain approval in this session. If not passed, the bill would not carry over to the next Congress.
But that may not be necessary since Senator-elect Jim Webb, the Democrat who defeated Allen, has promised to submit a similar bill and will work for its passage. His proposal is no better than Allen’s.
While carrying or possessing loaded firearms in park areas is generally prohibited, some parks authorize hunting and do permit firearms during open hunting season.
Which is fine. But why the need to carry concealed weapons into a national park?
A National Park Service spokesman told Hardin that serious crimes against individuals in the parks are extremely rare and there is no data demonstrating a need for visitors to carry concealed weapons.
Spokesman David Barna said that allowing people “with minimal or no training to carry firearms in national park areas will not lower the already negligible crime rate.” He added that it could “increase the possibility of basic altercations turning into something much more serious.”
While the Gun Owners Coalition naturally supports the measure, many others do not, including Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. He said he hoped the bill would die in the Senate, adding, “I don’t think there’s ... any reason why we need this.”
He’s right. National parks are refuges for nature and open vistas and trails and creeks and streams. They are places where people can escape from the weary rush of life into a peaceful realm that’s quiet. They don’t need to have to be worried about whether the guy approaching on one of the trails is packing a concealed weapon.
And they won’t have to worry about that if the Senate does what it should do with Allen’s bill - consign it to the legislative ash heap.
People should be free to exercise their unalienable, God-given, constitutional rights within National Parks, including the right to keep and bear arms and thus defend themselves if need be...therefore Sen. Allen is absolutely correct.
Do liberals really believe that potential murderers are worried about gun charges, or that they would bother applying for a permit to CC?
"Perhaps you might encounter a rattlesnake or some other potentially deadly critter that would pose a threat.... Surely there are others, but none of them are particularly legitimate."
I'm sure Timothy Treadwell thinks the same.
Oh yeah, he's bear poo now.
Does this apply to Fort Marcy Park? :-)
They guy carrying the legal concealed weapon is the GOOD guy. I wish these airheads would figure that out.
Exactly. It's irrelevant why someone would need the gun. The point is that they have the right to carry it. The Founding Fathers did not set conditions on our right to bear arms.
"worried about whether the guy approaching on one of the trails is packing a concealed weapon."
I am at peace with that. I will continue to be at peace when he pulls that gun out and shoots the knife-wielding thug who may try to rob me. Peace.
"Let’s see how many reasons there are to carry a concealed weapon into a national park."
Only one is needed.
One really good reason to allow guns in national parks is so that women can enjoy these spaces without having to organize a guy or 3 or 4 other women.
Remarkably, women sometimes like to enjoy these experiences in solitude. However, solitary women get raped, beaten, and killed in parks fairly often.
God may have made Adam and Eve but Colt made them equal.
Good for him.
This is another sign that somebody in the Democratic leadership has had a rush of brains to the head and tattooed the phrase "IF WE'D DEEP-SIXED GUN CONTROL SIX YEARS AGO, AL GORE WOULD BE PRESIDENT" on the inside of his eylids.
A National Park is no different than a street corner in Anytown, USA. Be alert... and be armed.
There are exactly none. However, there are reasons that one should carry in a national park. As thuggery has no boundary, neither should the constitutional right to self-defense.
They must........
*************
Apparently, that's exactly what they believe. Nothing else can account for their obvious stupidity regarding this issue.
Yes, when guns are banned in parks, only criminals will have guns in parks. Muggings will then be peaceful uncontested affairs and the Democrat Party's criminal constituency will remain unharmed and able to return to the polls in 2008.
One can never say that Democrats are not fiercely loyal to their criminal constituency, now can they? What a great bunch of team players!
Holy flipping crap. Didn't need to look past the first sentence.
People are already carrying concealed guns in parks.
Problem is: Right now it's only the bad guys. Right now there's absolutely no reason for them to refrain from pulling those guns out and disturbing your precious peace.
They don’t need to have to be worried about whether the guy approaching on one of the trails is packing a concealed weapon.
Who's "they"?
If good guys start carrying concealed weapons in parks, the only "they" worried about it will be the bad guys who are already carrying ...and morons like yourself.
If the bad guys are worried that the good guys are carrying, they'll be less likely to pull their own guns and disturb your presious peace.
Why is this so hard to get through your head?
Guns: bad (assuming I buy into your logic).
Guns in only the bad guys' hands: worse.
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