The Bush administration, in response to intense political pressure orchestrated by the National Rifle Association, has just announced it will re-open the regulations governing firearms in our national parks. This raises serious issues for park rangers, visitors and wildlife.
Poaching and resource degradation have been problems since Yellowstone was set aside as the world’s first national park in 1872. In 1936, to address this issue, the Secretary of the Interior issued the first rules regarding firearms in national parks. The regulations prohibited anyone from carrying a gun within the parks unless they obtained written permission from a park officer and the weapon was sealed. The main objective of this rule was to protect park wildlife from poaching and to provide rangers with tools for enforcement.
The current firearm regulations have been in place for 25 years; in my over 38 years as a park ranger and a park manager, they have worked well. They were developed with full public input and the only clamor for change lately has been from the political arena. Crime in national park areas remains considerably lower than in surrounding communities, but when poachers, drug traffickers and other serious offenders are caught inside the parks, the current firearms restrictions add further weight to the government’s prosecution of criminals. A person’s failure to comply with the simple requirement of properly stowing a weapon can be an indication to rangers that something might be amiss.
Changing the regulations could open up some of the most remote parkland in the contiguous 48 states n such as backcountry in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton n where guns are not allowed, to people with any type of legal firearm. Increasingly, visitors to our national parks are from urban areas and often out of their comfort zone while enjoying our national parks. As it stands, the wildlife is protected and reasonable precautions such as bear awareness programs, food storage enforcement and the carrying of pepper spray by backcountry users have reduced bear encounters. If firearms are added to these measures, there could easily be unintended results that could be devastating to the individual, other backcountry users and the wildlife involved.
Like our military reservations, veteran’s hospital grounds and other controlled federal installations, firearms and their use have long been restricted in our nearly 400 national park areas. To travel through the entrance station of a national park is to enter a special place. Longtime NPS employee Bill Brown in his book, “Islands of Hope” (1971), characterized the parks in several ways: “as sanctuaries of nature, as landmarks of history and culture, and as places of contemplation, discovery and adventure.” He goes on to say that there is another quality, an ambience of shared sociability and pleasure in these welcoming, neutral lands. Relaxing firearms regulations in the parks will be detrimental to this refuge ideal that national parks have come to signify for American families over the last century.
Our national park sites vary from Yellowstone to Independence Hall and from Glacier to the Lincoln Memorial and Shiloh battlefield. They are meant to be special places of inspiration and education with a sense of tranquility, history and beauty. The current regulations, which allow guns in parks with reasonable restrictions on how they are carried, have been working for many years. They protect the safety of humans and wildlife but do not unduly infringe on gun ownership rights. The existing regulations do not limit the rights of law-abiding citizens any more than luggage searches or metal detectors at airports or federal buildings. Re-opening them for review is unnecessary, and any proposed relaxation of these rules should be shot down.
Pete Hart has served as a protection ranger, chief ranger and superintendent of some 17 national park areas from Grand Teton and Glacier to Cape Cod and Great Smoky Mountains for over 38 years. He is currently a member of the Northern Rockies Regional Council of the National Parks and Conservation Association and lives in Livingston.
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