Posted on 05/30/2009 7:01:29 AM PDT by marktwain
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Local officials will have a “back-and-forth dialogue” with the federal government to implement a new law allowing concealed weapons at Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, officials said Tuesday, but regulations will be consistent across all national parks and monuments, as well as national wildlife refuges.
It is too soon to know, they said, how regulations will address local concerns about poaching and “self-defense??? wildlife shootings.
Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009, H.R. 627 – to which the gun bill was attached – puts gun control in national parks under state governance, though a Department of Interior spokesperson said her office will provide guidance to states that allow guns.
Wyoming senators Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, and Representative Cynthia Lummis (all R-Wyo.), praised the bill, signed by President Obama last Friday, in a joint press release citing the Second Amendment and states’ rights.
But Ted Kerosote a Kelly resident and author of Merle’s Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog, spoke out against the bill) in a New York Times forum that same day the day President Obama.
In an interview with JH Weekly, Kerosote said that both animals and humans deserve a refuge from guns, and in national parks, where wildlife is habituated to humans, they run the risk of deadly encounters.
“I fear that wildlife will be shot because of frightened, armed people,” he said. Here, with so many black bears habituated to people, and now grizzlies, I worry about people carrying firearms, using the rationale of self-defense. “
Jeff Ruch, spokesperson for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), also said that the legislation may create “some unpleasant situations” at national monuments near his office in D.C. In a release last December when President Bush failed to push through guns in parks, PEER expressed concern over the increased likelihood of poaching, the parks being so large and the rangers being so few.
Kerosote said that signage encouraging park visitors to use pepper spray, which he says works better than guns, should be a priority.
GTNP spokesperson Jackie Skaggs said that signage was likely, but deferred to the National Park Service office in Washington, which directed Planet JH to the Department of Interior. Interior spokesperson Kendra Barkoff, deferring to an official statement, said it has nine months before the law will go into effect, giving it ample time to put “public safety and the safety of our employees as our foremost consideration.” JHW PERMALINK: Guns in local parks | Planet JH News Article: General News
Oh Good Grief!
That quote caught my eye, too. Can you tell me now which states don’t allow guns; which states actually flat-out outlaw guns? Is there one?
And that bit about pepper spray being more effective than a gun...you’ve heard the joke about how to ID Grizzly scat, right?
When someone starts a sentence with 'I fear' and 'I worry', it shows they do not have a logical, fact-based argument.
People who are opposed to concealed carry in our parks are the same who oppose it everywhere. Don't be fooled.
As a general statement, it's idiotic.
For a particular situation it might have some actual validity. Pepper spray might indeed be more effective against an aggressive but not yet attacking grizzly than shooting it with, say, a 22 pistol.
We spend half our summer on a National Park in Montana and spent 7 years running our lodge in Alaska and each time into a park with clients or family I have carried. A dozen bear encounters were avoided with a warning shot into the ground and I’ll just say this. I would not walk into the wilds un-armed where mtn lions & bears can and will attack at random. They are very unpredictable. Guns give you back your security and it is terribly irresponsible of anyone to venture with women and children un-armed into certain wilderness settings. A group of grown men OK.
Pepper spray is OK so long as a 20 knot wind isn’t blowing in your face as the bear charges. You’ll end up with all of it in your face and on your skin. The bear will run off because you are now flavored in burning pepper mace and the high pitched screaming will freak him out. True stories.
A 22 is better shoved into the mouth of the carrier then shot at a charging brown or grizzly.
Black bears will run from a 22 and mtn lions can be scared by a stinger shot as well but browns and grizz have some bad tempers.
??
Too G-d d@mn much time on their hands perhaps?
I wouldn't bet my life on that. ; )
The left has been working to disarm the American public for decades. Why should we be surprised by nonsensical poaching arguments? Of course I’ve waited my whole life to be able to tie a big grizzly bear on the roof of my car and quietly slip unnoticed through the gates at Jellystone Park. I’ll certainly not take aim at the bear with the hat and tie, or at his little friend BooBoo.
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