Federal law allows visitors to carry guns in national parks

[WATRD]

Federal law allows visitors to carry guns in national parks

A federal law taking effect Monday may alter the standard checklist for many Americans as they pack to visit their national parks: insect repellent, snacks, hiking boots ... double-barreled shotgun. Visitors now can pack heat in any national park provided they comply with the firearms laws of the park's home state, according to the new law.

By Julie Cart

Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — A federal law taking effect Monday may alter the standard checklist for many Americans as they pack to visit their national parks: insect repellent, snacks, hiking boots ... double-barreled shotgun.

Visitors now can pack heat in any national park from Gates of the Arctic to Everglades provided they comply with the firearms laws of the park's home state, according to the new law that was passed as an amendment to credit-card legislation.

In some instances, they may carry concealed and loaded firearms at campsites in Yosemite Valley, along trails at Yellowstone and standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Gun advocates welcomed the law as overdue, noting that firearms are allowed in national forests and other federal lands, many of which are adjacent to national parks.

But opponents say guns don't belong in the nation's highly protected parks, where it remains illegal to fire a weapon or kill an animal, and where employees, including most rangers, are unarmed.

The presence of guns, they say, could increase the chance of deadly accidents and up the ante in confrontations between park visitors or between visitors and wildlife.

The law, passed by Congress in May, reverses 94 years of National Park Service policy that generally allowed visitors only to transport unloaded, disassembled weapons in the trunks of their cars. It applies not only to national parks as diverse as the Liberty Bell and Glacier, but to national wildlife refuges.

You still won't be able to discharge a firearm except in extreme cases, and weapons won't be allowed in buildings where federal employees work, such as the Statue of Liberty and park visitors centers. But restaurants, hotels and gift shops will be subject to the new gun law. Yosemite's historic Ahwahnee hotel, for example, must allow visitors who are legally entitled to carry weapons to bring them into the building.

Gun-rights advocates are planning to mark the occasion by holding weapon-toting cookouts.

There were 1,844 weapons-related offenses reported in national parks last year.

[Carhartt]

About time.

[sigman]

Just to stay safe. Carry a copy of that article with you. It takes along time for the feds to get out the new info to everyone. That piece of paper can stop someone who has worked at the park since Mosses was a kid from arressting your butt.

[sigman]

I am currently tring to verify, but I thought a warning was in order. While carrying into the National Parks in now legal, carrying into ANY Federal building within the park limits is still ILLEGAL. It being a Federal building and all.
This is bull poo poo!