Guns In National Parks Amendment

[6thGen]

I understand you have the liberty to keep a gun for protection in your home and liberty to obtain a hunting permit. But, when you are allowed to pack in a public park then you take away my liberties. I have no control over how you house that firearm. If I am camping nearby, tents do not have walls and bolts and locks. At the very least, I would imagine that anyone who keeps a weapon in their home whether for protection or hunting use, keeps it in a secure place where others can not gain access to it easily.

Actually, 6th, you have it backwards. Work your way backwards from the people who find out someone has a gun in a public area, excluding law enforcement. That concerns me a lot more, as well as some machismo who suddenly tries to be a hero when a bear raids someone's camping area.

Whether or not I am carrying a weapon in a public park has no effect on your liberties. If it did it would be to say that any time you walk down the street in Long Island, or any time you are in a public place in a state that issues concealed weapons permits (48 states) your rights are being infringed upon. If I choose to use it on you in any of those circumstances, then it has an effect on your liberties. The fact that you automatically assume that anyone carrying a gun wants to be a hero and is doing so for machismo further illustrates my point that you have to work backwards to determine that there is no reason to carry a gun in a public park.

Edit - I also do not believe that an individual only has a right to a or use for a gun in his home for protection or for sporting. You really should re-read your Constitution.

 

[Mango]

I always bring a firearm along camping and wouldn't camp anywhere I wasn't able to bring one. We're not talking about some New York city park with a statue of some freak on 1/10 of an acre slab of concrete. How is this even an issue when we are flushing the future away on pork and garbage added into bills that are asinine in their entirety? I don't hunt either, but with all of my income going to stimulus I may need to hunt in order to eat.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas Jefferson

You're exactly the constituency that Coburn of Ark., who raised the issue again, is appealing to. Political jockeying on an important Bill about protecting the consumer against usurious interest rates being instituted if you are one day late with your card payment. Perhaps you should ask him how much it will cost to monitor who really has a permit to pack in such wide open areas as State Parks and how many more Park Rangers may be needed to ensure our protected wildlife isn't poached?

6th, briefly walking past someone who may be packing in a more nefarious neighborhood is a completely different issue than camping/sleeping within yards length of someone packing. Since when did monitored National State Parks become criminal breeding grounds that warrant such drastic self preservation? The statistics do not warrant it. If someone is so scared to go camping wit their family in the woods that they feel they need a gun, then they should consider staying home.

 

[6thGen]

6th, briefly walking past someone who may be packing in a more nefarious neighborhood is a completely different issue than camping/sleeping within yards length of someone packing. Since when did monitored National State Parks become criminal breeding grounds that warrant such drastic self preservation? The statistics do not warrant it. If someone is so scared to go camping wit their family in the woods that they feel they need a gun, then they should consider staying home.

It's not differentiating between good and bad neighborhood, it's any public place. Most playgrounds are public places. Do you feel safe at public playgrounds? I'm allowed to carry a firearm there. Do you feel safe in city parks? I have a right to carry a firearm there. In Publix? Ditto. Church? Yep. It doesn't meant I will, or doesn't mean I have to in order to feel safe, but based on current law I have passed the requirements that grant me the right to do so.

 

[wrobert]

As part of the credit card reform bill, an amendment was snuck in to relax a ban on bringing loaded guns into National Parks also passed. The gun amendment reinstates a last-minute executive order by Bush.

I simply do not understand the need for this. If you can bring a gun on federal land, then why not prisons, the Treasury Department, et. al.?Where do we draw the line? Please don't tell me it is needed for protection because here are the stats for crimes in National Parks:

Considering the largesse of National Parks and the millions of visitors to them, I hardly call these numbers staggering.

So when those pesky ants invade the picnic, gun toters have a choice vs. using a pocket knife for protection.

​

Define snuck. It was voted on separately and from news reports enjoyed wide bi-partisan support. Now this is the sort of change I can believe in.

I get so tired of having to remember where I can and can not bring a gun.

 

[wrobert]

Because you don't need one!

I have never carried a gun in all my years of wilderness trips - even in areas where there were bears. Unless you are messing with their cub or food you are safe from a bear - even those conditioned by idiots to think of humans as food sources.

Using your brain would go much farther in keeping you safe from the aforementioned "dangers" - a concept usually lost on would-be gun toters. :roll:

Amazing how park rangers - who are in the parks 24/7 - don't need guns but a visitor does.

Did you read the story last week where the bear broke into an occupied house to get to the refrigerator? If people are going to feed these things you gotta be prepared to shoot them.

 

[wrobert]

Yes, it is a reason and a damn good one.

We outlawed carrying guns in national parks in 1930 to combat poaching.

No dangers exist in our national parks that you would need to carry a gun for - thus there is no reason to change this rule and allow you to carry one.

Park rangers carry sidearms for law enforcement purposes, not for protection from marauding wildlife.

Poachers are criminals. I seriously doubt that they all jumped up and said "Oh my God. There is a law against carrying a gun in a National Park. Now we have to quit our criminal behavior because we would not want to break two laws."

 

[wrobert]

I understand you have the liberty to keep a gun for protection in your home and liberty to obtain a hunting permit. But, when you are allowed to pack in a public park then you take away my liberties. I have no control over how you house that firearm. If I am camping nearby, tents do not have walls and bolts and locks. At the very least, I would imagine that anyone who keeps a weapon in their home whether for protection or hunting use, keeps it in a secure place where others can not gain access to it easily.

Actually, 6th, you have it backwards. Work your way backwards from the people who find out someone has a gun in a public area, excluding law enforcement. That concerns me a lot more, as well as some machismo who suddenly tries to be a hero when a bear raids someone's camping area.

That is why you should carry one too! Evens the odds.

 

[wrobert]

You're exactly the constituency that Coburn of Ark., who raised the issue again, is appealing to. Political jockeying on an important Bill about protecting the consumer against usurious interest rates being instituted if you are one day late with your card payment. Perhaps you should ask him how much it will cost to monitor who really has a permit to pack in such wide open areas as State Parks and how many more Park Rangers may be needed to ensure our protected wildlife isn't poached?

6th, briefly walking past someone who may be packing in a more nefarious neighborhood is a completely different issue than camping/sleeping within yards length of someone packing. Since when did monitored National State Parks become criminal breeding grounds that warrant such drastic self preservation? The statistics do not warrant it. If someone is so scared to go camping wit their family in the woods that they feel they need a gun, then they should consider staying home.

I think you guys are missing the big picture here. This could not have passed unless DEMOCRATS voted FOR it. You wanted some change, and now you got it.

 

[Mango]

It's not differentiating between good and bad neighborhood, it's any public place. Most playgrounds are public places. Do you feel safe at public playgrounds? I'm allowed to carry a firearm there. Do you feel safe in city parks? I have a right to carry a firearm there. In Publix? Ditto. Church? Yep. It doesn't meant I will, or doesn't mean I have to in order to feel safe, but based on current law I have passed the requirements that grant me the right to do so.

The difference is there isn't protected wildlife in these places.

 

[Mango]

That is why you should carry one too! Evens the odds.

How do you know I don't already pack?