The Seattle Times Editorial Board puts their ignorance on display
Firearm regulations formulated during the Reagan era should be retained because they help keep visitors to America’s national parks safe and protect wild animals from poachers.
The rules are simple enough: Rifles and handguns must be unloaded and stowed away in national parks. For 25 years these straightforward regulations have been administered by the National Park Service without notable controversy.An effort in the U.S. Senate to undo the rules failed, so senators wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne asking him to do it through the regulatory process. He answered in late February to say he had directed an assistant secretary to develop and propose new regulations by April 30.
The scent of an election issue makes the nose twitch, the way honey attracts a bear. The National Rifle Association has prodded the Bush administration to change the rules, and here is a classic topic to turn out a base of voters. Karl Rove lives.
No one is safe — humans or wildlife — with this proposed revision. Law-abiding citizens are not looking for another camper to deputize himself as an armed citizen peacekeeper. Liquor, guns and campgrounds — now there is a volatile combination.
Park rangers already have their hands full trying to thwart poaching on federal lands. The idea of a rifle-toting hiker in the backcountry of the national park only fuels confusion about intent.
Wow. Just, wow. I cannot even begin to unlock the truth on the issue from this steaming pile of garbage.
The issue is the ability to carry a concealed pistol as I pass through or visit a National Park. How in the hell did they get this PSH bile from that simple issue?
I have a conceled carry permit so it is conc
eled No one knows I have it.Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
Awwww, now Phil. Just stop and think about the feelings of the gun fearing wussies for one second, wouldya?
I often think about our inability to carry firearms here in the great white north – while riding through grizzly country and coming upon freshly killed elk carcasses. And the odd mountain lion who takes a kid or mother – more of a nuisance, really. After all – non-lethal bear spray is wonderful for pissing them off so you die faster, so what’s the problem?
So I can’t tote a rifle? Fair enough, pistol it is, then.
The Seattle Times Editorial board should be made to run through mountain lion habitat clad only in running shoes, running shorts and t-shirt at dawn and at dusk, until one of their number does not come back from his or her run. The remainder may then hold hands and search for the missing boardmember. No guns allowed! They made that rule, they have to abide by it.
When they find him or her they should report on what will make them feel safe.