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Americans will be able to carry loaded guns in National Parks starting on February 22, 2010 thanks to the Coburn Amendment which was attached to the federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 and signed by President Obama earlier this year. That Congressional mandate at Section 512 of the Act immunizes Americans from the National Park Service's gun carry ban provided that the gun carry does not violate any other state or federal law.
Most states allow both open and concealed carry of loaded firearms in public places, though typically concealed carry requires a state issued license. Another wrinkle is that some states regulate gun carry inside vehicles more strictly than gun carry on foot, while other states do the reverse.
Several recent news reports note surprise by some observers that the Coburn Amendment permits both concealed and open carry of firearms, including long guns, on National Park property. However the National Park Service seems to be taking things in stride.
According to National Park Spokesperson Phil Selleck, the Park Service is not going to go through any formal rulemaking process for each park. Instead said Selleck, the Service is going to work to "educate the public" and park employees on the gun carry rights in each park. Selleck said that federal law at 18 U.S.C. 930 continues to ban gun carry in "federal facilities," but advised that the Park Service does not consider unattended structures such as "outhouses" to be federal facilities because "employees are not regularly present there to perform official duties."
Gun rights organizers are not really surprised that the National Park Service is proactively moving forward to implement the new gun carry policy. They point to the fact that the Coburn Amendment simply implements the same policy which has long been in effect for National Forests and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
But the gun rights community is pleased that gun carry is finally being legalized in National Parks, and not just because they won't have to disarm before entering outhouses. Kim Stolfer of the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League, a Pennsylvania gun rights group, told the Examiner.com that "this change is a long overdue" and that its "a relief that citizens will finally not have to risk prosecution should they decide to carry a firearm to protect themselves or their families and a National Park is somewhere in their travels."
Comments
Don't you mean February 22, 2010?
OOOps! John made a typo. Yes carry in NP's starts in 2010.
You CAN carry on Federal Facilities (except Federal courts.
The Relevant section is subsection d(3)
§ 930. Possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in Federal facilities
(a) Except as provided in subsection (d), whoever knowingly possesses or causes to be present a firearm or other dangerous weapon in a Federal facility (other than a Federal court facility), or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both.
(d) Subsection (a) shall not apply to—
(1) REMOVED TO SAVE SPACE
(2) REMOVED TO SAVE SPACE
(3) the lawful carrying of firearms or other dangerous weapons in a Federal facility incident to hunting or other lawful purposes.
Remember all the Paul Helmke et al gun banner lies about the drunken gun nuts killing innocent folks and poaching all the animals they could shoot if the the gun restrictions were removed. I hope you'll report on that when it happens because they know the gun nuts are surely just champing at the bit to get drunk and wreak havoc, just like they did in Florida when the Castle Doctrine passed.
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