Free Republic

According to a piece in the Everett Herald recently re-elected council member, John "Freedom County" Koster, doesn't think there are enough venues for gun owners in Snohomish County and is hoping to repeal the county's current ban on firearms in the county's parks. Herald reporter Noah Haglund writes, "If a new law passes, you could feel free to tote a legally owned firearm into county parks. Just don’t shoot it, unless it’s in self-defense. County code, as it reads now, prohibits people from carrying or discharging guns in county parks. Lifting the long-standing ban is mostly a house-keeping measure to...

According to National Park Spokesperson Phil Selleck, the Park Service is not going to go through any formal rulemaking process for each park. Instead said Selleck, the Service is going to work to "educate the public" and park employees on the gun carry rights in each park. Selleck said that federal law at 18 U.S.C. 930 continues to ban gun carry in "federal facilities," but advised that the Park Service does not consider unattended structures such as "outhouses" to be federal facilities because "employees are not regularly present there to perform official duties."

I thought I'd be domestic for a bit and explore state parks in Montana. Obviously it's a state famous for mountains and glaciers and geysers (well, most of those are in Wyoming, but still), so I wondered what would be at the "state park" level. Found some next stuff. Each picture comes with a link to the page on the Montana state parks Web site. 1. Giant Springs State Park 2. Medicine Rocks State Park (click this one for full-size 3. Lewis and Clark Caverns (Montana's first state park) A very good image of the caverns (I can't share this...

But amid the breathtaking views, she noticed a glaring omission. Under the pristine blue skies, there were hardly any people of color. "At Yellowstone, it occurred to me -- how come there are no black people around?" Peterman said. Why? she wondered. Why weren't they enjoying the parks they helped create, the public lands that belonged to them as well? Peterman embarked on a crusade to address the problem.

TV's `Burn Notice' sets up explosion at Arch Creek East Nature Preserve in North Miami It started with a deafening boom. Then came the powerful flames taking over the wooden planks of a North Miami bridge. Before long the fire was under control. With that, Burn Notice -- a show that revolves around a CIA operative working in Miami -- finished up shooting an action-packed scene in North Miami's Arch Creek nature preserve on Aug. 17. The episode, which is part of the show's third season, will air in February or March. ``It was a very controlled explosion,'' the show's...

First, just a striking view of the Capitol Reef National Park from space. The picture below is labeled; the linked picture is bigger and isn't labeled. The link goes to the explanatory article. Big Thomson Mesa, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah Second, a couple of amazing photos from the Oasis Room in the unreal Lechuguilla Cave, Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Somewhere out there there's a 360-degree picture of this room. (Someone find it, post the link here.) There's more pictures at the link. 360 Degrees Of Lechuguilla Cave: Photo Shoot at Oasis

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - If Murfreesboro decides to allow guns in parks it could cost the city the annual Spring Fling event and the $3.5 million it brings in from tourism. The executive director of TSSAA said there is no way they would allow the week-long high school sport state tournaments to be played at a park where guns are allowed. A state law allowing people with carry permits to bring guns in parks goes into effect September first. However, local governments can opt out. Murfreesboro's City Council decided last week to postpone voting on a measure to uphold its ban...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California governor's office says federal officials are threatening to seize six state parks if they are closed to help balance the state's budget. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing 220 state parks. But the National Park Service warned in a letter to Schwarzenegger that six of those parks are on former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government if they are not kept open as parks.

This is my third column about the infamous administrative rule to allow loaded, concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges, which has evolved into a symbolic and high priority political battle. Both pro-gun and anti-gun advocates seized on it as a way to find out who has the power. And now we know. The gun lobby wins, easily, which is no surprise to me. I view the passage of HR 627, a credit card reform bill with the highly publicized national park gun amendment attached, as valuable testimony for my past claims that the war to preserve the sanctity...

SACRAMENTO — In a bid to avoid mass closures of state parks, Assembly Democrats on Monday offered a financial trade-off: Pay an additional $15 to register your car, and in return, the state will waive vehicle entry fees at all state parks for anyone with a California license plate. The proposal, outlined by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is part of a sweeping budget plan Democrats aim to unveil this week and vote on as early as next week. ... But Bass said the majority party would also push for at least a handful of tax increases. In addition...

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, announced today that it has filed a friend of the court brief opposing the ACLU’s campaign to tear down another war memorial cross. At issue is a small cross originally erected on Sunrise Rock in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in memory of the dead of all wars. The cross is located in California’s Mojave Desert, in a remote area where the only visible signs of human activity are off-road vehicles and trail hikers. The ACLU succeeded in...

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Local officials will have a “back-and-forth dialogue” with the federal government to implement a new law allowing concealed weapons at Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, officials said Tuesday, but regulations will be consistent across all national parks and monuments, as well as national wildlife refuges. It is too soon to know, they said, how regulations will address local concerns about poaching and “self-defense??? wildlife shootings. Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009, H.R. 627 – to which the gun bill was attached – puts gun control in national parks under state governance, though a Department of...

Last week, President Obama signed a bill which, besides changing credit card laws, says that in National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges, the laws about gun carrying will be the same as in the host state. So in Colorado, for example, you will be allowed to carry a concealed handgun in Rocky Mountain National Park, if you have a state-issued concealed carry permit. In Vermont’s Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, you can carry at will, since no permit is required for carry in the rest of Vermont. In New Jersey’ Gateway National Recreation Area, you will need a permit, and since...

Schwarzenegger this week recommended eliminating $70 million in parks spending through June 30, 2010. But since the state's famed park system attracts nearly 80 million visitors a year and spend billions in the process of visiting California. Typical government idiocy, close the parks and cost billions in lost tourist dollars to save just $70 million. Schwarzenegger is a moron!

As many as 25 state parks within an hour of San Francisco, including redwood forests, beaches, coastal woodlands and historical sites, could be closed in a desperate attempt to reduce the state's giant budget deficit. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposal to tackle the state's $24.3 billion shortfall includes the elimination of all general fund contributions to California's 279 parks within two years.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama put his signature on legislation Friday clamping down on credit-card companies' ability to boost interest rates and slap higher fees on consumers, a measure long-sought by the White House but reviled by the banking sector. "We're not going to give people a free pass, and we expect consumers to live within their means and pay what they owe, but we also expect financial institutions to act with the same sense of responsibility that the American people aspire to in their own lives," Obama said at a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden. --------------------------------cut------------------------------ The credit-card...

http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gu...-for-gun-carry SNIP examiner.com — Eventually gun rights advocates expected the federal Congress would step in and repeal the odd man out gun ban in National Parks. And so Congress did this week, finally aligning national parks and wildlife refuges with regulations governing the national forests and property controlled by the Bureau of Land Management.

One of the last things former President George Bush did before leaving office was to overturn the 25 year old ban on carrying loaded firearms in our National Parks and return your right to self-defense, but only if you had a concealed handgun license and your state allowed guns in parks. One of the first things done under President Obama's administration was to suspend that rule change, citing that nobody had done an environmental study. Apparently we need to determine which disturbs the natural order of the parks more, a few grains of lead or a shallow grave containing a...

The 67-29 roll call by which the Senate on Tuesday approved an amendment that would allow people to carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to support the amendment and a "no" vote was a vote against it. Voting "yes" were 27 Democrats, 39 Republicans and 1 independent. Voting "no" were 27 Democrats, 1 Republican and 1 independent.

Gun prohibitionists are crowing that a federal judge on March 19 blocked a rule change allowing concealed carry in national parks. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued a preliminary injunction that the National Rifle Association says it will quickly appeal. BULLETIN: The NRA on Friday filed an appeal in this case. An apparently giddy Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, was quoted by the Associated Press noting, “We’re happy that this headlong rush to push more guns into more places has been slowed.” Darned right he’s happy, but this has nothing...

Our colleague Gun Rights Examiner Daniel White had recently posted an observant piece about comparing gun owners to Paramedics and field EMS. Dan wrote how citizens act in emergency, and many emergency professionals believe the person turning in the alarm and acting on behalf of another, as in cases of first aid or CPR until the assets arrive, is the first link in the chain of emergency care. It’s textbook. This morning, I learned of a news report about how a high school student was entering class to find his teacher choking on some food. He administered the Heimlich Maneuver...

Do concealed handguns contribute to air pollution? There are more than a dozen national parks and wildlife refuges in Georgia, and now your right to bear arms in Georgia’s national parks and refuges has been swept away by a federal judge in Washington DC. Yesterday, United States District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered Kenneth L. Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, not to implement the new regulation that permits loaded, concealed firearms on national park and wildlife refuges until the Court can make a final decision on whether to enjoin the new regulation permanently. This new regulation had taken effect on...

First it was Attorney General Eric Holder’s trial balloon about renewing and making permanent the ban on so-called “assault weapons.” When that didn’t gain traction with Congress, the Obama administration — it appears — decided to take a different tack. Several days ago, ammunition manufacturers were advised that the Department of Defense has decided to no longer sell empty, once-fired cartridge cases as surplus to companies that polish and reload those empties, recycling them back into the marketplace. Instead, the empty brass will be destroyed so that it cannot be re-loaded, for commercial use, for law enforcement training, for hunting,...

The Dec. 18 OpEd by Stephanie Clement, “New firearms rule will make national parks less safe,” misses on several important points. The argument that allowing concealed carrying of firearms for self-defense will render parks unsafe is the same smoke blown by anti-gun organizations to deter the passage of “right to carry” laws in various states. Presently, 40 out of 50 states have laws that allow “concealed carry” of firearms for self-defense, up from a mere six states in 1982. Passage of these laws was not accompanied by increases in gun violence, as projected by anti-gun organizations. In fact, we have...

Have gun, will travel ... in municipal parks. The issue of a section of Pennsylvania law came up for debate at a Lower Salford Parks Board meeting last month, and it brings to light how the law may affect other municipalities in the area. The regulation in question states “no county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this commonwealth.” The law, enacted Jan. 30, 2007, and endorsed by 16 members of the state...

SADR CITY — As rockets crashed down in central Baghdad nine months ago, Special Groups criminals controlled the areas here intended for play and athletics. But today, the children were back at play in northeast Baghdad as local government leaders opened the Faoo Family Park and the Regular 6 Sports Complex. The facilities, which were once used by Special Groups to launch deadly attacks against the fortified Green Zone, were celebrated, Jan. 17, for being returned to the citizens as well as the military accomplishment of seizing the land back from the criminals. “This park is for all the people...

On January 9, 2009, the National Park Service was tasked to live by the same rules that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service and the rest of the nation use. On January 10, 2009, the earth rotated. The sun rose. The Constitution still worked. Law-abiding citizens were still, well, law-abiding. Apparently, we all survived. Starting in the 1980s, a significant number of states passed laws which allowed law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms. Most federal land agencies acknowledged these rights and respected the 2nd Amendment. But the National Park Service (NPS) failed to keep pace with...

The United States will need $1.6 trillion to repair damage to its infrastructure from a massive influx of immigrants, a new report reveals. In his report titled, "The Twin Crises: Immigration and Infrastructure," prominent researcher Edwin S. Rubenstein examines 15 categories of infrastructure: airports, border security, bridges, dams and levees, electricity (the power grids), hazardous waste removal , hospitals, mass transit, parks and recreation facilities, ports and navigable waterways, public schools, railroads, roads and highways, solid waste and trash, and water and sewer systems. Rubenstein, a financial analyst and former contributing editor of Forbes and economics editor of National Review,...

New Rules On Right-To-Carry In Our National Parks Take Effect Today Friday, January 09, 2009 In early December, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), through the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announced the final amended version of a change to rules on carrying firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. The change will restore the right of law-abiding gun owners to transport and carry concealed firearms for lawful purposes on most DOI lands, according to the laws of the states in which these public lands are located. The new rule, which takes effect today, allows...

Parks, D.C. Dragging Their Feet The Heller case struck down D.C.'s ban on handguns, and its ban on having a loaded firearm in your home. The D.C. government is still trying hard to discourage gun use without directly violating the Heller decision. For example, their latest gun control law would require gun owners to re-register their guns every three years, continues their longstanding ban on "assault weapons," require completion of a gun safety course, and have a background check done every six years.1 While gun registration is clearly constitutional, some of these provisions, simply because they impose a repeated cost...

With its days numbered, the Bush administration has made an unnecessary and dangerous change to a 25-year-old regulation that bans concealed, loaded firearms in America's national parks and wildlife refuges. This regulation, created by the Reagan administration, has done an outstanding job of making these special places among the safest in the nation. And it did so without imposing unreasonable restrictions on gun owners - it merely required that weapons be unloaded and kept in a place that's not readily accessible, such as a car trunk. But this 11th-hour rule change - slipped in by a lame-duck administration late on...

Campers may now pack heat along with their sleeping bags when they travel to national parks. The Bush administration on Friday struck down federal regulations banning loaded guns in most national forests, a move that was widely seen as a parting shot on behalf of the National Rifle Association. The ruling overturned a 25-year-old federal regulation severely restricting concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. The new rule, which would take effect in January, would apparently allow anyone who already has a concealed weapons permit in his or her state to also tote a gun in federal parks within...

Here is the complete final rule of the National Park Service on the rule change about carrying concealed weapons in National Parks. I particularly like the Issue 13 and Response 13 on pages 18 and 19. Issue 13 states that some people will not enjoy their stay in the park because they will know that some people will be carrying loaded guns. Response 13 says that people have always carried loaded guns in the parks as NPS and NWS law enforcement officers, and they have carried openly, so people know this is already the case.

Today’s announcement that the Interior Department has amended its rules and will henceforth allow licensed concealed carry in national parks was hailed as a victory for the Second Amendment by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “No longer will American citizens be required to leave their right of self-defense at the gates of a national park,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This common-sense change in regulations reflects not only changes in the laws of 48 states, but more importantly the Supreme Court’s ruling in June that upheld the individual right to keep and bear arms...

Barack Obama has voted for or supported some of the most extreme gun control measures ever attempted in our nation. And yet, with the help of his media accomplices, the Democrat has managed to lull some gun owners into complacency, just as he has managed to lull many hard-working, red-blooded American workers into complacency by obscuring his socialist economic agenda. Thanks to one simple question from Joe the Plumber on the campaign trail, Americans now know about Obama's plan for wealth redistribution. And thanks to one simple answer to an interview question, Obama has given "Joe the Hunter" all he...

With solid bipartisan support, a Senate panel approved legislation on Thursday to allow loaded guns in national parks. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved, 18-5, a draft bill by Sen. Jim DeMint , R-S.C. It would allow people to bring loaded guns into national parks and wildlife refuges unless state laws bar them from doing so. Park Service regulations now allow guns only if they are unloaded and stowed. “The purpose of this bill is to protect innocent Americans from violent crime in national parks,” DeMint said. Park advocacy groups immediately decried the move and warned it could be...

It was the one part of the six-lane intercounty connector that even highway haters embraced as a small but eco-friendly offset to a road that will pave over streams, woods and wildlife. Now, the possibility of building a continuous, off-road bicycle and walking trail along the Maryland highway's 18.8-mile route is in jeopardy -- in the name of protecting the environment. Montgomery County planners say a continuous 10-foot-wide asphalt bike path would cause too much damage to ecologically sensitive parkland traversed by the toll road under construction between Gaithersburg and Laurel. Instead, planners say, cyclists and walkers should be detoured...

WILLIAMSTOWN - The U.S. Department of the Interior is reconsidering its ban on concealed weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges, including the Williamstown-based Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Currently, state concealed-carry permit laws are not honored in national parks and wildlife refuges, including the Ohio River Islands National Wildlife Refuge, which is comprised of islands in the Ohio River stretching from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. Department of the Interior officials are reviewing a proposal that would allow individuals to carry a concealed weapon in national parks and refuges if they are authorized to do so in the state where...

Department of the Interior Extends Deadline for Comments Regarding Right-to-Carry in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges Until August 8. Like a quarterback taking a knee in the fourth quarter, two of Congress’s most ardent opponents of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms are trying to run out the clock on efforts to enhance your right to self-defense in our national parks and wildlife refuges. For two months, we have been asking NRA members and gun owners to submit comments in support of allowing law-abiding citizens to carry their legally-owned firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges -- and tens...

Several hikers ran across eight bares last week in Gathland State Park. A group of men between the ages of 40 and 60 reportedly disrobed and started walking along the trail, said Sgt. Ken Turner, a spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources. About 10:30 a.m. Friday, a man was in the park when he saw the men gathering near the Appalachian Trail. He then saw them hiking in nothing but their shoes, Turner said. His wife reported the sighting to police about an hour later, Turner said. Officials did not release the name of the man or his wife....

In this Alert: 1. Court Shoots Down Bloomberg! 2. National Parks Ending Gun Ban? 3. The National Anthem Bloomberg A 3 judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has dismissed a lawsuit by the city of New York attempting to hold firearms manufacturers responsible for the costs of “gun crime” in the city. The court ruled that the suit should have been dismissed under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act passed by the congress in 2005. The 2-1 decision affirmed the constitutionality of that law and criticized Federal Judge Jack Weinstein for failing...

A group of Brooklyn judges is preparing to sue the city to preserve its parking privileges in a park next to Borough Hall, claiming that the removal of 20 or so spaces will endanger the judges’ safety because the nearest garage is two blocks away. The parking lot, at the corner of Joralemon and Adams streets, is within Columbus Park. The judges also park their cars on a public walkway next to the lot, but the Parks Department now says that the judges will lose those spaces this spring. The 20 or so judges who park their vehicles in that...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proved this week that nobody is safe when it comes to government appointments - not even relatives or fellow movie stars. The governor refused to reappoint his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver and fellow acting icon Clint Eastwood to the State Park and Recreation Commission, where both had served for several years. The move stunned park advocates and other members of the commission, who said the two men were outspoken champions of the beleaguered state parks system and had disagreed with Schwarzenegger on a project he had championed. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said Eastwood and Shriver weren't reappointed because...

BILLINGS, Mont. - Pesticides, heavy metals and other airborne contaminants are raining down on national parks across the West and Alaska, turning up at sometimes dangerously high levels in lakes, plants and fish. A sweeping, six-year federal study released Tuesday found evidence of 70 contaminants in 20 national parks and monuments — from Denali in Alaska and Glacier in Montana, to Big Bend in Texas and Yosemite in California. The findings revealed that some of the Earth's most pristine wilderness is still within reach of the toxic byproducts of the industrial age. "Contaminants are everywhere. You can't get more remote...

Big Brother may soon be watching - at your local playground. NYPD and Parks Department officials say it's only a matter of time before parks throughout the city are equipped with crime-fighting surveillance cameras - as many other parts of the city currently are. "It's not a matter of if we are going to use the technology but when we are going to use this technology," Deputy Parks Commissioner Kevin Jeffrey said during a recent City Council hearing on park safety. Jeffrey said the key issues are finding funding and the best technology available to guarantee prosecution. The comments came...

DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is proposing the sale of dozens of the city's 367 parks as part of an effort to raise money.

School, park closures in O.C. Thick clouds of smoke, raining ash and the firestorm ripping through canyons have forced the closure of schools and parks. Closures are being evaluated daily. The following are scheduled to be closed through at least today.

I would like to ask you if you would consider helping Bay Families with Dogs, a grassroots organization in Panama City, FL. We have been enjoying for decades a stretch of beach on a barrier island with out family dogs. Recently, however the Florida State Park system has been buying up the few remaining private parcels and charging visitors to the island with SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANORS if they have their dog with them (or if they drink an adult beverage) on state lands. This has been a huge controversy in our community. I am personally asking if you will consider...

oceanfront resort when police fired into their bungalow after they refused to drop a handgun, authorities said. Police were called Sunday to the Montage Resort and Spa by a security guard who said a man and a woman were engaged in a domestic dispute, said police Sgt. Jason Kravetz. "It may not have been domestic violence, but that's how we were called to the scene," Kravetz said. "Usually in a domestic violence (case) the woman doesn't go out and try to shoot at other people." Several 911 callers said a naked woman was running around the hotel waving a gun,...

Horseshoe Bend, AR -- Judges on a federal appeals court, taking up a case involving local politicians and UFOs, say a woman's claim that she has a constitutional right to an elective office is alien to them. Ruth E. Parks, the former recorder-treasurer of Horseshoe Bend, sued Mayor Robert Spear and others, claiming they conspired to prevent her re-election. But the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Saint Louis said voters turned Parks out of office, not the mayor and other defendants. At a trial of a supporter of the mayor, Parks testified that she believed in UFOs, and...