Ohio National Park Visitors Will Soon be Able to Pack Heat
Mary Kuhlman, Managing Editor
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Cleveland, OH – Congress has voted to allow visitors to national parks and other public lands to carry loaded guns, including semi-automatic weapons. The measure passed easily over the objections of several former Park Service directors, who argued it would reduce the environment of safety inside national parks.
Bill Wade, Executive Committee chair for the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, says the bill goes even further than a Bush administration rule that was struck down in court. That rule allowed permit holders to carry concealed weapons.
"This amendment would allow any firearm to be carried in a national park or wildlife refuge as long as it’s consistent with state law. So, if a state allows shotguns to be carried openly, then that would be the situation in national parks as well."
Supporters of the gun measure say it protects Second Amendment rights and gives Americans the ability to protect themselves everywhere within their states, including public lands.
Until January, national park visitors could only possess weapons that were unloaded and locked away. Wade agrees with several other former Park Service officials who argued the previous strict firearm regulations made the parks some of the safest places in the nation.
"All you have to do is compare the statistics for crimes in national parks, in particular crimes that involve firearms or weapons of that nature, to every place else and you’ll see that the incidence of those kinds of crimes is much, much lower in national parks."
The gun amendment was attached to an unrelated bill imposing new restrictions on credit card companies.
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