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Gun-friendly national parks possibly coming soon
I've been in national parks from Acadia in Maine to Glacier in Montana to Zion in Utah to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. (You can start humming "This Land is Your Land" if you like.) I've always felt safe--aggravated sometimes by over-sized RVs, but safe.
I even felt safe when I was hiking in Glacier with my husband, then boyfriend, when we saw a mother grizzly bear and her cub in the distance. We were far enough away from them that they looked like dogs. Even when my husband, then boyfriend, said, "All I have to do is out run you if they come for us," I felt safe.
Evidently, I may not have been as safe as I thought. If I had had a gun, I'd feel safer. That's the general idea of the proposal that is on the table to allow guns in the national park system. The people who think this is a good idea must have seen the "The River Wild' several times over. That's the flick when Meryl Streep's character takes on Kevin Bacon's character--the bad guy, during a family raft trip down a river in some western state. It was filmed in Montana and Oregon.
There are people that think this idea is about as dumb as they come. According the this article in The New York Times, The national parks are supposed to be family-friendly. Family-friendly places don't have guns. Look at this picture taken in Yosemite by James Gordon. Is there any place that looks more family-friendly than that? Plus, there is a chance someone feeling threatened might kill an animal when there isn't a threat at all.
Personally, I'm on the side of folks who aren't happy with the idea of guns in national parks. I'm a fairly calm person, but I know what it feels like to not find a parking space because some large vehicle pulling another large vehicle is taking up more than one space--or what it's like to not be able to get around a large vehicle pulling another large vehicle on a windy road. Add summer heat, limited vacation time and you have to pee, but can't stop because there's no room to pull over, and you've got trouble. "Road Rage at the Grand Canyon" coming to a theater near you.
Filed under: Activism, Hiking, Stories, United States, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jared - Lubbock, TX Jun 1st 2008 2:03AM
How narrow-minded. To sum up not being able to defend your family and your self in this great land, you reduce your argument to road rage and not getting a parking space? I agree people shouldn't go poaching in state parks and refuges. Unfortunatley, animals very rarely, but still do attack. Pouching is a crime, so naturally there are laws against such things. Just as there are laws against people committing crimes against one another, rarely often, but crimes still happen.
A "crime-less utopia" might be where you live, but in my world, the real world, only the law-abiding are civilized. Bad things still happen and innocent lives are always there to catch the brunt of the perpetrators destruction. I don't choose to live my life ignoring the facts, but you may continue to, it is your right. Just as mine right is to go wherever I please in America.
This world has bad people in it. And those bad people are mostly out of sight behind the walls of everyday life. Some bad people still get through those walls,... I choose to guard my wall with a gun,... wherever I am.
DHB Jun 1st 2008 11:56AM
Well said...see my post later if they print it.
iomatic Jun 5th 2008 2:59AM
You gun-toting freaks are clearly paranoid babies. Go play with your guns on another planet. Defend your family? Use common sense: don't go strolling through Compton screaming racial slurs; don't go into bear territory. Guns are GREAT on the range, where they belong. Poll: how many of you whiners wanting to conceal-carry even know how to pitch a tent, or live near a high-crime area?
*silence*
Yeah, thought so.
The world is generally pretty safe, despite what Fox News tells you. Just sure you have your duct tape and plastic sheeting, because, you know those 'terrists' are gonna git ya!!!
FFS, you freaking nubs.
BrianM Jun 1st 2008 7:37AM
Most of the gun crime in this country is commited by people who already have a criminal record and therefore are not even allowed to have guns to begin with, outlaw the guns and then only the criminals have them. Putting additional bans on those same criminals will not do anything to stop them from having the same illegal weapons. Only then there is no one else to help defend anyone else while the speeding revenue generation force (aka police) take their time getting there.
J.D. Jun 1st 2008 8:06AM
Great idea! Any time that law abiding citizens can carry and possess guns, the world will be a safer place from scumbag criminals and wild beasts like coyotes, mountain lions, wolves and grizzly bears. This type of movement is very forward, clear-minded thinking based on fact, not fiction.
conor Jun 1st 2008 11:00AM
Guns dont kill people people do
DHB Jun 1st 2008 11:48AM
The white wine set believes the world is safer if we just all bury our heads from reality. I wonder how Mr Rein would feel watching his young child being taken away by cougar or wolves whle he thew rocks at it. As a responsible gun owner and one who has met many like me at shooting ranges and gun shows, I find gun owners (many times ex-military) to be the most courteous people out there. This is in contrast to the typical "save the seals, kill the babies" liberal bumper sticker that cuts me off in traffic and flips me the bird. By your definition, I would haved chased him down and shot him out of road rage. By the way, check the statistics. Those with right to carry permits have less than 1% of their permits revoked for breaking the laws. These are the good guys.
Sterling Jun 1st 2008 9:10AM
In my opinion, "family friendly" means safe. When my family and I hike, backpack, or have any of life's other outdoor experiences, it is my responsibility to ensure that my family is safe. Wild animals can be dangerous, even though they are beautiful and worth the danger to observe and photograph. The US Fish and Wildlife Dept find themselves killing animals at the parks each year that have lost the fear of humans and have attacked campers.
Criminals prey on innocent, unprotected people wherever they can find them. In homes, on the streets, in subways, or in the parks. Criminals do not discriminate by location. Criminals tend to leave families alone that have some obvious form of protection (alarms on houses, dogs in the house, a "protected by Smith and Wesson" sticker on the window.)
Allowing weapons in the parks will make keeping my family safe much easier from dangerous animals as well as from the criminal element. It will be interesting to see the crime statistics for National parks that allow weapons against those that don't. Criminals tend to stay away from locations where people are allowed to protect themselves effectively.
justme Jun 2nd 2008 9:00AM
chicago is a no hand gun city. can you see how crime free it is. daily now wants to make illinois a gun free state. because he can see how crime free chicago is. criminals love a garantee that victoms will be unarmed. i have been a crime victom, and it never goes away. i have been around guns all my life, and never reached for a gun in anger.
Dog Jun 1st 2008 9:36AM
LMBO!!
As if folks haven't been going to Parks with guns in their vehicles all along!
Typical alarmist B.S.
The law is meant to simply allow folks with the legal right to conceal carry, many of whom are traveling out of state, be allowed to frequent National Parks. Folks travel all over this country with legal firearms. Why should they be disallowed to stop by a national park? Because they MIGHT get road rage over a bad need to pee?
Get real. Folks with conceal carry permits are the most law abiding folks in America.
The thing that should be feared is arriving and departing safely in vehicles, in which approximately 45,000 people are killed annualy.
Mike Jun 1st 2008 9:52AM
you can always talk to the bear or other wild animal out of killing you for a meal.
When you try it I'll read about in print "camper killed by wild animal" as youre getting chewed alive I bet you'll wish you were armed-fool
james Jun 1st 2008 9:58AM
gun's are safe in hand's of trained people. proper training of the use of a weapon is important. safety issue's, proper handling, respect, & maint. when deep in the back country there is a great comfort having a gun. if you do not have to fire it even( better.)
Dog Jun 1st 2008 11:45AM
So, Jamie, when you were aggravated at the National parks, did you think to yourself " If I only had a gun, I'd kill the S.O.B. with the R.V" ?
That's pretty much what you are saying other folks will do if they have a gun.
It's nonsense.
Remember this part for the rest of your days.... THERE WILL BE NO GRAND CANYON ROAD RAGE IN A PARKING LOT AS YOU DESCRIBE.
I choose to distrust criminals.
YOU CHOOSE TO DISTRUST EVERYBODY.
You gun grabbing alarmists haven't been right yet. Yet you still want Americans to be denied their Constituional rights. You expect us all to live by your unrealistic and ineffective ideas.
If that bear had charged.... what would make you feel safer, being with a gun, or without it?
DHB Jun 3rd 2008 7:10PM
In addition to self protection, having backpacked frequently in the Rockies, I know that if I get injured, lost, stranded, etc, I not only have an effective signaling devise, but I have the meand to acquire food...squirrel, rabbit, etc.
J.Brown Jun 1st 2008 12:00PM
Grizzly bears, coyoties, panthers and my personal favorite serial killers that have started picking up thier targets in national parks and hiking trails. Thats enough reasons for me to want to carry a gun for protection in a national park
DHB Jun 1st 2008 12:24PM
I just noticed Bloomberg is on "McCain's short list". I guess McCain doesn't realize the power of the NRA and the feelings of most of Americans outside Calif, Ill, and NY. A sure way to get Obama elected because most of the people will stay home. Bloomberg is worse than Schumer when it comes to our 2nd amendment rights bestowed on us by the creator,...... not the government,
Dog Jun 1st 2008 12:12PM
Bloomberg will definately get Obama elected. He and Obama are two peas in a gun grabbing pod.
Kaili Jun 7th 2008 10:47PM
When you were speaking of the power of the NRA and "feelings of most of Americans outside Calif, Ill, and NY" I think you meant Chicago, Peoria and the Quad Cities. I'm from RURAL Illinois, and where I come from, before and after hunting season we skip to go to a shooting range to hone our skills, during hunting seasons we skip school to go hunting. And as long as we get pretty decent grades, no one calls us in to explain our absences.
And, I've got a buddy IN the NRA, that was his birthday present to himself. So, when talking about the major citites of Illinois you might want to remember that most of Illinois is made of little, rural towns like mine, where hunting is a religion, a box of ammo is a birthday gift, and where shooting ranges make more money than our local McDonald's.
bonnieblueflag Jun 1st 2008 12:24PM
I agree with Jamie. Road rage is real. In fact, I always shoot anyone who takes two parking spaces or whenever I have to pee -- at least 10 or 12 a day (unless they have a "baby on board" sign. Then I just wing 'em cause I'm "family friendly" like Jamie says.) Of course, I don't shoot people in national parks, because it's currently illegal to take a gun there. Darn!
Hey Jamie, don't try to grow a brain because you might be expected to use it.
Kathy Jun 1st 2008 12:16PM
McCain recently did an interview with the NRA, and is asking for their endorsement. I don't see how they could possibly endorse him with Bloomin'ass as a runningmate.