Beginning February 22, 2010 a new gun law will go into effect in America's national park areas. The new law, passed last spring by an bipartisan vote in the U.S. Senate, will allow people to possess, carry and transport firearms in national parks, in accordance with state law. The new law repeals a National Park Service rule that has long prohibited Americans from possessing firearms in national parks for self-defense.
Many details remain to be worked out. Reports indicate that National Park Service officials are debating issues such as the definition of “federal facilities,” where firearms will remain prohibited under a different federal law.
To illustrate its objections to this new law, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) issued a press release voicing its opposition to the new law. The group cities the heightened risk for rangers and the increased likelihood that wildlife — as well as natural and historical monuments — will become irresistible targets.
Bill Wade, chair of CNPSR's Executive Council and former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park said, "This is a sad chapter in the history of America's premier system of heritage areas. The law will have a chilling effect on how visitors behave in national parks. A feeling of safety and security will be replaced by wariness and suspicion. This diminishes some of the 'specialness and reverence' our citizens have long accorded to their national parks."
While many states, and therefore the national park areas in them, will soon allow individuals to openly carry firearms, most states are much more restrictive about concealed-carry, and most require a permit to do so. Visitors with a permit from one state may or may not be able to carry a concealed gun into a national park in another state, depending on reciprocity agreements. Similarly, visitors who have "long guns" in vehicle racks traveling from a park in one state to a park in another state will have to understand the differing state requirements.
Supporters
Last May, Chris W. Cox, chief lobbyist for the NRA, said the new gun measure protects every American's Second Amendment rights and also protects the rights of states to pass laws that apply to their entire state, including public lands. Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who inserted the gun amendment into a credit card bill, noted that "Visitors to national parks should have the right to defend themselves in accordance with the laws of their states."
Mark Chester, an editor with the National Rifle Association wrote, "Records prove that Americans with Right-to-Carry licenses are among the most law-abiding citizens in our country. In fact, that’s true in every state that has passed a Right-to-Carry law in the last 20 years. Also, those same citizens now legally carrying firearms in national parks have long been carrying their guns in a variety of public places outside the parks -- places where they stood side by side with pro-gun and anti-gun citizens alike on a daily basis without those people even being aware they were armed."
NPS officials are expected to issue further information as February 22 approaches, and some parks have already published information on their new policies. Because state laws vary greatly, before you visit a national park, you should check the park’s website or call the park headquarters for more information.
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The 2010 Travelers Guide to Firearm Laws is the definitive source of state-by-state gun laws in the United States
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