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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 3 of 3)
Joe Alves Oct 20th 2008 8:37PM
Also in national parks, if you even have reception, see how long it will take you to get some help.. Everyone law abiding citizen should have the right to protect themselves in a national park.
BD Jan 31st 2009 11:28PM
What's so ridiculous about the fear of this is that people are carrying around you every day if you live in a freedom friendly state. It's just geography. Considering the level of criminal (drugs) activity in our so-called safe NP system you would be crazy to go hiking w/o one.
Why don't gun shops and gun ranges get robbed? Because criminals love unarmed victims. Good people with guns prevent crime, not somehow fly off the handle and go crazy, otherwise the MILLIONS of concealed carry holders doing such things would be in the news every day. I can assure you media would report it to death. Those that want to restrict gun rights do nothing more than keep crime/chaos alive so that we can be rescued by the govt. Take responsibility for your own protection. When seconds count the police are only minutes away. That's a fact, and any honest LEO will admit it. No disrespect intended but they can only do so much and they ultimately are not bound to protect you.