A federal judge, in a biting opinion highly critical of the Bush administration's Interior Department, has blocked a rule change that would have allowed national park visitors to carry concealed weapons.
In her ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly scolded those who crafted the rule change for abdicating "their congressionally-mandated obligation to evaluate all reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts..."
The ruling, which also applies to concealed carry in national wildlife refuges, granted the National Parks Conservation Association, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees and the Association of National Park Rangers a preliminary injunction that blocks the rule change.
“This ruling by Judge Kollar-Kotelly validates the concerns of Americans across the country, every living former director of the National Park Service, ranger organizations, and retired park superintendents —all of whom opposed this eleventh-hour change under the Bush Administration," said Bryan Faehner, associate director, park uses, for the NPCA.
“This decision will help ensure national parks remain one of the safest places for American families and wildlife,” he said.
The rule change, which took effect January 9 and will now be blocked until the court issues a final determination, was seen by gun-control advocates and national park advocates as pandering by the outgoing Bush administration to the National Rifle Association.
Indeed, despite being in office for eight years the administration didn't actively move forward on the rule until its final year in office. And then it moved with haste, moving from a proposal to replace the old rule, which allowed for firearms to be transported through national parks as long as they were broken down and placed out of reach, to language to allow concealed carry in barely two months.
Some of those working under former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne worried that the process was flawed because the rule-change was being pushed through without a National Environmental Policy Act review, which is just what Judge Kollar-Kotelly focused on.
Indeed, at one point the judge, who called the Bush administration's approach "astoundingly flawed," struggled to grasp the logic of Secretary Kempthorne in deciding no NEPA review was necessary.
The lynchpin of Defendants’ response is that the Final Rule has no environmental impacts–and that Defendants were not required to perform any environmental analysis–because the Final Rule only authorizes persons to possess concealed, loaded, and operable firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges, and does not authorize persons to discharge, brandish, or otherwise use the concealed, loaded, and operable firearms. In other words, the Final Rule has no environmental impacts according to Defendants because the Final Rule does not authorize any environmental impacts. (emphasis added)
In her 44-page ruling (attached below) Judge Kollar-Kotelly also noted that the Bush administration, "ignored (without sufficient explanation) substantial information in the administrative record concerning environmental impacts, including (i) Defendants’ own long-standing belief under the previous regulations that allowing only inoperable and stored firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges was necessary to safeguard against certain risks to the environment and (ii) the almost universal view among interested parties that persons who possess concealed, loaded, and operable firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges will use them for any number of reasons, including self-defense against persons and animals (all of which suggests that the Final Rule will have some impact on the environment).
Judge Judge Kollar-Kotelly also made it clear that she was not ruling on the issue of gun rights in general or concealed carry specifically.
"(D)espite many of the arguments raised by the parties, intervenor-movants, and amici curiae, this case is not a platform for resolving disputes concerning the merits of concealed weapons or laws related to concealed weapons that are appropriately directed to the other branches of government," she pointed out. "The Court is bound to consider only whether Defendants have complied with Congress’ statutes and regulations, and not whether Defendants have made wise judgments in any normative sense. Accordingly, the Court expresses no view as to the merits of any laws or regulations related to concealed weapons or firearms generally."
Comments
Once again, we hear from a law-abiding concealed weapons permit holder.
Rick Smith
If you only knew how she tried to stop this rulemaking, but was over ruled by the White House!
The need to carry a concealed weapon seems to be at issue. There is absolutely no need to do so. If safety is the primary issue for those proponents of carrying firearms into these areas, then BEARing them in the open makes the most sense. The need one feels to be secretive serves no purpose of promoting safety. If more people entering the parks are obviously armed, then the bad guys will be less like to inhabit these areas themselves. Hidden arms are more likely to lead to confrontation. BEAR your arms in the open proudly. Appear to be a proponent of safety and not paranoia.
We hear so much about the rights of "law abiding" citizens to bear arms. We hear about how CCW permit holders have "...demonstrated to the issuing state's satisfaction that they are responsible law abiding citizens and can be trusted to safely and responsibly carry concealed firearms because they are not a threat to themselves or others."
Here are a few examples of that:
In two reports that focused on the State of Florida, the
Violence Policy Center found that as of July 1995, 469 Florida CCW licensees had been
identified as having committed a wide variety of crimes. In just one year, between May 1995
and May 1996, 159 Florida CCW licensees had their licenses revoked.
Blacksburg, VA • February 1996. Robert Asbury died of a self-inflicted gun-shot wound after
he shot and killed his estranged wife and one of his wife’s former co-workers at her home. On
his CCW license application, Asbury wrote that he had owned and used guns for fifty years and
regularly practiced at a gun range.
Seattle, WA • December 9, 1998. Carlton Evans, a 37-year-old CCW licensee, was accused of
killing his wife and baby daughter after months of abuse.
Tualatin, OR • November 17, 1999. David Tanski, 53, rammed his car into another car that
had taken a parking space he felt belonged to him. When the driver of the second car approached
Tanski, Tanski pulled out a gun. Tanski, who has a CCW license, was charged with menacing.
Fountain City, TN • December 1999. William Manies, 52, returned to his former office to seek
revenge against the 45-year-old woman who fired him a month before. Manies, a CCW licensee,
walked into the office and pointed a .38-caliber pistol at the victim and executed her while she
sat in her chair, talking on the telephone.
The Violence Policy Center has published four
reports on CCW licensees in Texas. They found that Texas CCW licensees were arrested for
5,314 crimes between January 1, 1996 and August 31, 2001, and since Texas’ CCW licensing
law went into effect, licensees have been arrested for an average of two crimes per day.
Florida • Lyglenson Lemorin
retained his CCW license after two domestic violence arrests in 1997 and 1998. The first
time he allegedly threw a beer bottle at his girlfriend’s neck. The second time he allegedly
punched a pregnant former girlfriend, flashed his gun in her face and warned her, “I’ll kill you.”
Columbia, SC • June 9, 2008. A 4-year-old girl shot herself in the chest after grabbing her
grandmother’s handgun while riding in a shopping cart in a Sam’s Club store. The grandmother,
Donna Hutto Williamson, is a CCW licensee and left her purse containing the handgun in the
cart near the 4-year-old.
Cincinnati, OH • October 2008. CCW licensee Robert Stahl, 71, was at his daughter’s Halloween party and
was asked by one of several children there if he was dressed as a cowboy because he had a
handgun on his hip. Stahl said he was not a cowboy and then took the gun out and unloaded the
ammunition from the magazine, however, Stahl left a .45 caliber bullet in the gun’s chamber that
went off and hit 10-year-old Jasmine Vincenzo in the stomach.
Plaxico Burress had a CCW permit from Florida.
To obtain a permit in Michigan handgun buyers simply must correctly answer 70% of the questions on a written safety test, but the wrong answers are pointed out and they are allowed to retake the test if they fail.
There are many, many more such examples. The three things to remember are these: CCW licencees have tempers too; accidents happen; and, every single criminal who has ever lived was a "law abiding citizen" right up until the day that they weren't.
If you are that frightened that you think you need a gun in our national parks, just do us all a favor and stay home.
Frank N. , Thank You for the research, and posting it. I am now curious to see how the "Law abiding citizens" react to your comment and facts. I have wondered for sometime how they are better than others just because they are allowed to carry a weapon that no one can see. I myself own guns, but I don't see the need to hide it while in the Nat. Parks, but thats just my personal feelings.
Most if not all of Frank's examples can be found on the website of the self proclaimed "most aggressive group in the gun control movement" - The Violence Policy Center. Instead of me visiting the NRA website and regurgitating what I just read, you should just visit www.nra.org.
I'll credit Google for helping me find the following excerpts and quotes which are from newspaper articles, NPS press releases, and research papers:
NPS 2007 Annual Report – 8 murders, 43 forcible rapes, 57 robberies, and 274 instances of aggravated assault
"The most visitors used to worry about is running into a grizzly bear. Now there is the specter of violence by a masked [illegal] alien toting an AK-47," said David Barna, chief spokesman for the National Park Service (NPS).
Press Release National Park Service, August 2008 - Director Mary A. Bomar:
“These people slip in and out of their camps for supplies, tend and vigorously defend the marijuana crop that can be worth millions of dollars if it gets to market,” Bomar said. “And anyone who stumbles on their operations is in real danger.”
“National parks budgets are stretched far enough without having to deal with illegal marijuana growing operations.” (Mary Bomar)
"It's a $2 billion or a $4 billion problem, and we're throwing $1 million at it," said Supervisor Allen Ishida of Tulare County, whose deputies seized 157,000 pot plants on public and private lands and made 28 arrests this year.
Illegal marijuana growing sites have previously been found – and destroyed – at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Santa Monica National Recreation Area, and Point Reyes National Seashore.
The largest single bust in the nation this year netted 482,000 plants in the remote Sierra of Tulare County, the forest service said.
Violent crimes have occurred at Mount Rainier. There was a double rape and armed robbery on Rampart Ridge in 1978. In 1981 there was an armed robbery at the National Park Inn. The 1996 death of Sheila Ann Kearns, a housekeeper at the inn, was ruled a homicide.
April 2008 – A 55 year old man was attacked at Yellowstone. During the battle, the grizzly ripped off a big chunk of his scalp, scraped a wide groove of meat from beneath his right arm, and battered and scratched his torso. A small backpack probably helped him avoid further injury. Then the bear attacked again, he reached for the pistol he [illegally] wore in a holster on his belt and subsequently shot and killed the bear.
US Alligator attacks 1948 to 2004 – 376 injuries
Fatal alligator attacks (US) since 2000 - 13 deaths
KENAI -- A man was mauled by a brown bear on the Kenai Peninsula in what state officials are calling the first mauling of 2008. was charged by a sow with two cubs when he left his home early Tuesday. The man turned and fled, but the bear quickly caught him, biting his buttocks, the back of his head and his chest.
73 Mountain Lion Attacks between 1991 and 2003 in US - 10 victims were killed.
August 2008 - A woman on a guided hike in the Brooks Range was mauled by a bear at her group’s campsite in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve on Thursday morning.
The Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve , 1996, a Washington, D.C. man was fatally mauled during a float trip down the Noatak River. He and another man were hiking through dense brush about a mile from the river when they surprised a sow grizzly with a cub at close range. The sow attacked and killed one of the men, the first fatal mauling in the park’s 28-year history.
March 2006, A 92-year-old man who was attacked by a bull moose while walking to church in a small mountain town was upgraded to serious condition on Monday.
A female moose with two calves attacked a 60-year-old woman while she was walking her dog. The woman was taken to hospital with minor injuries while her dog, a cocker spaniel, was so badly injured that it had to be euthanized.
November 2005, Carnegie was attacked and killed by wolves while hiking in remote Northern Saskatchewan [Canada]. Carnegie is the first human known to have been killed by healthy, wild wolves in North America.
SFC Frick from the magazine "Field and Stream" regarding self-defense with a gun "It's better to be sad than room temperature"
Pike,
As you point out, this "debate" offers quite the smorgasbord of statistics, plenty to go around.
Quick question: The April 2008 attack in Yellowstone. Do you have any more specifics, such as date, where in the park it happened? The park public affairs office never put out a release on that one, which I certainly would consider newsworthy. I'm not questioning you, I'm just curious about the incident.