Both the New York Times and the Washington Post, as well as hundreds of news organizations across the country, have wrongly attributed this quote to the Obama administration:

“A midnight rule change by the Bush administration to allow carrying of concealed weapons in the national parks will not have any significant impacts on public health and safety.”

It turns out this statement did not come from the current Justice Department under Obama, but rather from a Department of Interior memo dated November 18, 2008 during the Bush administration.

Forty-seven U.S. senators recently wrote to the secretary of the interior under Bush, Dirk Kempthorne, asking him to lift the ban on carrying ready-to-fire weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges.  Under current law, guns carried into or through a national park or refuge must be unloaded, taken apart, or cased in a way “that will prevent their ready use.”  According to the senators’ letter, this rule infringes on gun owners’ rights and is “confusing, burdensome and unnecessary.”

The Interior Department has prohibited people from carrying firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges since the 1980s.  The rationale was simple:  A gun in a national park is primarily useful for poaching, mischief or crime.

I own many guns and fully support the Second Amendment.  But there’s a time and place for everything.  And some places are simply better off if visitors are not armed: airports, court houses, and national parks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Laws, Senate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.