OK
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.
Read it again. They are all Mexican Drug Cartels doing the growing. They've "taken" the land.
I'm sure I can think of more, but that's the short list of real hazards that justify carrying a firearm inside a national park.
The article has already mentioned, "rattlesnake or some other potentially deadly critter," (I think that covers your first two, if not all five) and "any attackers - real or imagined" (which covers your last three) and then dismissed them: "none of them are particularly legitimate."
My point is that the entire article is ridiculous and there is no arguing with the mentally impaired.
OK
Sorry, I can't gag that little "factoid" down without a grain of salt. LEO's would have me believe that it's all the big bad cartels .. that's their bread and butter.
Prior to the law changes there were plenty of home grown entrepreneurs out there ... they didn't all disappear.
Looks like you are going to believe what you want regardless of FACTS. Hundreds of small counties are going UNDER trying to fight these drug cartels.
Believe what you wish, at OUR peril. Sorry I confused you with facts. You obviously don't want to check it out yourself. Keep your family out of the forests and national parks. I don't want to be reading about you and yours next.
DITTO that.
Oh?
One does not need excuses, when they already have RIGHTS.
There is no NEED, if you've already got RIGHTS.
Huh??
I guess NO one gets mugged or killed in parks, eh?
What's that bumper sticker:
The use of this proverb in english appears to have begun with Theodore Roosevelt. He is quoted as saying 'I have always been fond of the West African proverb - speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.'
Details.....
Ya think?
The 'state' has taken AWAY your right - give by the Founders of this Nation!
What are you going to do to get it back??
Me too, but I figger they wuz in a hurry to type it in...
Agreed!
I am armed everywhere I go.
You left out:
Broken leg gained by falling over the edge of a remote trail.
GirlThink. It's going to get us all killed.
bkmakr
exactly...because we all know that crimminals obey all the gun laws.
..they do...don't they?
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