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Senators Pushing To Allow Concealed Weapons in National Parks

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Should national park visitors be allowed to carry concealed weapons?

There's a move under way in the U.S. Senate to have Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne reverse the National Park Service's ban against the public carrying concealed weapons in the national parks.

This is a highly charged issue, as long-time readers of the Traveler well know. The latest push is being led by U.S. Senator Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican. Mr. Crapo says the Park Service's ban needs to be overturned in part because different land-management agencies have different rules on concealed carry and that can be confusing to gun owners. The senator also claims the prohibition infringes gun owners' rights.

In a somewhat related matter, Texas officials who want to sell the Christmas Mountains, a nearly 9,300-acre range near Big Bend National Park, are resistant to selling the land to the Park Service because of its ban on weapons.

Comments

Let's face it folks, the NRA has held this country hostage with fear for years, and fear sells at your local gun shop. Spend some time at the city morgue and observe the dead bodies on the gurneys from gun violence. I have and it makes you puke!


Have you ever visited the morgue and seen how many people were in there who had died of a drug overdose? All violent deaths are bad. We must pursue prevention. Making something illegal only makes good media coverage. It does NOT prevent illegal activity.


Disinformation #1-
You feel that a good government will always stay that way.
Find me any mention of this quote in the text of my comments. You can't, because I never made this comment or inferred this opinion in any manner. At least have the decency to accurately quote my commentary.

Disinformation #2-
I can't believe you can watch a few incidents a year and think that gun violence is the norm
Gun violence is a daily occurrence throughout our nation. Accidental shootings, drive-by's, acts of domestic violence and the more typical injuries caused by the firing of a weapon during the commission of more "traditional" crimes can in NO way be classified as "a few incidents a year". The ignorance in this statement is overwhelming.

However, the aptly stated term within this context is "gun violence". It is that indeed. For what purpose do you suppose guns were invented if not for violence? As collector's items? For display purposes? Paperweights?

Disinformation #3-
a collection of men as 1 body (which is government, and that would be gov. infringing on gov.)
This may be the best of all.......Since when is every collection of men as 1 body classified as a government? What manner of ridiculous notion brought you that bit of wisdom?

Disinformation #4 & 5
Every time you hear a story of a sad gun attack you want to blame special interests instead of the sad reflection of the degradation of society
I feel that the evolution of all government everywhere is to limit freedoms
Other references above state things about the degradation of society as a whole and the govenment effectively strengthening it's stranglehold on personal liberties as the catalyst for "drastic actions" being required as a call to arms. Half correct. The liberties that were endowed upon us by the founding fathers were already in question at the time those original documents were being constructed. Research writings authored by Franklin, Jefferson, Madison and other "signers", and you will quickly discover that they had doubts whether a society would evolve that could maintain order within these guidelines, as too high a moral standard was required by EACH individual in order for the entire system no to implode. And implode is indeed has, for exactly the reasons forecast by these well-meaning, idealistic men. The only mistake they made was in not allowing for what they knew from history to be reality, that being the insatiable greed and immorality of men. As men exhibit more tendencies towards those ends, indeed efforting to escape the law, or at the very least circumvent it, most assuredly additional laws MUST be enacted to countermand that mindset and close loopholes. It is due to the immaturity of society as a whole that we are forced to enact laws, and our eacape from tyranny is to escape the hold that special interest place upon the government, not the government per se.

Our nation currently stands on the precipice of lawlessness, with no personal accountibility to anyone for anything, yet you feel somehow that this is due to the government? In a way, perhaps you're correct. The basic structure of our laws has allowed for this usurption of the "letter" to be confused with the "intent" of the law, thus encouraging social degradation by those in powerful positions, and unfortuantely for you, these are generallly NOT the ruling bodies, but the weathly businessmen BEHIND those in power. Then, like any good puppeteer, you find men upon whom you can endow the vestiges of power and prestige, but are willing to pay the heavy price of functioning as your marionette. They become your point man, your flunky, your fall guy, functioning only to keep your hands clean. If they win, they owe you. If they lose, they take the fall. What is it about our system of government as it relates to internal compliance and subserviance to special interests that you're not able to comprehend? You're targeting the wrong people.

If you are so sure that a view of history will show that men have their own selfish desires and the only way government can be changed (eventually....not immediately) is through drastic means, you had best be certain that you're weaponry is pointed in the correct direction. If you all were so bold as to back up this paranoid diatribe with actions, and had any foresight at all, you would quickly realize that we stand at the brink of your dreams. After 8 years of ineffective leadership and with an overall public approval rating at it's lowest in our history, our current governing body is ripe for the taking. Over the course of the next 10 months, if your group had the stones enough to "walk the walk", you could leave the existing structure in the hands of a true incompetent, from which it would fall fast and hard in a heartbeat. Then you could direct your ire at the street gangs who give gun owners a bad reputation. Then you could clean up organized crime. Then you would be free to deal with the illegal aliens and the sea of internal terrorist, which by the way, would be exactly what you've evolved your organization into, like it or not. Then as the next holier than thou group targets you as you did the previous ruling body, you can take the self-righteous attitude of saying, "But look at all the things we've done for you" as they vent their frustrations on you. And on, and on, and on, which is why in civilized circles these ideals to which you hold dear are referred to as a "cycle of violence".

But enough of the dark side of human nature. Until we can all be intelligent enough to see through the "fog of war" so competently laid down by big business, we have no hope as a society. Happy holidays, if you believe in such things, to you all!


The Casper Star-Tribune has an editorial out yesterday that I think clears up some of the issues. They come out against firearms in the parks not because they are anti-gun rights but say that the claim of inconvenience to gun owners is unfounded because all the regulation is interpreted to mean is that the gun has to be disassembled or in the trunk. So, people passing through can have their guns. They just can't have them right next to them ready to use in the front seat.

I do think the ideological questions are important because they suggest something about government, about people, about their relationship with each other. That's what this discussion is about; it's just too bad that the discussion is fancied up by the senators as though this is really a practical consideration that needs immediate policy attention. Has anyone here ever asked whether they were carrying a firearm either when entering or while in a park? That would be an interesting poll question. (I never have in hundreds of encounters with rangers.) Because, if not, and if the policy really allows people to carry them through anyhow, then the dressing here is taken away, and people can have the important values question discussion.

I think that people avoid that discussion and couch it in practical window dressing in order to cherry pick support to make it seem as though one view is in the majority (I used to criticize fellow pacifists for trying to do the same in co-opting opposition against the war in Iraq). It would be much better that people had the confidence of their convictions to make the argument on the strongest possible grounds by acknowledging the strongest possible argument of one's opponents. Then, we might get somewhere here.

Jim Macdonald
The Magic of Yellowstone
Yellowstone Newspaper
Jim's Eclectic World


This is just the same stuff politicians dust off and put out into the public debate when they want to energize their base before an election. And we're all the bunch of idiots who fall for it every time. There are so many more important issues these bozos can't seem to find the time to work on -- health care for children and the elderly, improved veterans' benefits, energy independence, the affordability of a college education, the accelerating destruction of global resources, Social Security solvency, and the list goes on.


Probably the best point of all Merryland...here here! I guess anyone of us would be shocked if the otherside suddenly said....Gee, I never thought of it that way and then changed our minds. Merry Christmas to all.


In western Montana the locals have more brains than to go camping in Glacier Park because of the Grizzly bears and out of control people from all over the USA and only the visiting Idiots go there.
The rest of us Montana’s with common sense go to other places in the mountains where we can carry guns and be safe.
It should definitely be legal to carry a firearm in the parks..............!


I'll keep this simple-I never even thought of carrying a concealed weapon until I heard about the lone girl hiking with her dog in Georgia. Some nut kills her for no reason other than he is a psycho nut. If she had a right to carry she could have defended herself against this nut. She is just one example of the many. How sad for her family. It sounds like you have a family, you are the protector of that family...what if you were to come across this nut or the many others that are out there that wanted to do your family harm. Don't you think the bad guys know they can prey on your family in the parks because sane good people are not allowed to carry protection. Sure they know this that is why they stalk in these areas. Your comment about bears and mountain lion is valid, they sure do exist but the human predators are also out there. Just the truth, doesn't mean I wouldn't like to live in your world where there are no bad people. But you are in a dream world. I am a mom of 2 and when I go out hiking with my children I want to be able to protect them from the bad guys if we encounter one. Hopefully we don't but if we do I sure want to use whatever it takes to defend my family. You can take anything over the top if you want to by saying where does it stop...A CCW stands for concealed meaning my little 38 fits in my pocket....there are regulations that go along with having this permit that must be adhered to. Talk to the victims families instead of siding with predators...my gosh you are a man, where is your protective instinct?


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