According to the December 18 issue of The Missoulian, Montana Democratic Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester have forwarded a letter to Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne asking that the department allow gun owners to carry loaded firearms into national parks and national wildlife refuges.

The letter, which was co-signed by 47 other senators, said

the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service allow transporting and carrying of firearms on their lands in accordance with the laws of the host state. It added that a similar exception for parks and refuges “would respect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners, while providing a consistent application of state weapon laws across all land ownership boundaries.”

The article also quoted Jerry Case, chief for regulations and special park uses for the National Park Service, who stated that in addition to allowing guns for hunting, other guns can already be transported, as long as their inaccessible:

“They don’t have to be broken down,” he said. “Preferably they’re in your trunk and unloaded. Our regulations do allow people to transport weapons through a park as long as it’s not accessible…One of our major concerns is that folks who have ready access to them infrequently - more than we like to see, though - use them on park wildlife,” he said. He also noted that some parks have many people in campsites, and “if you have people start plinking around with weapons, then you have accidents,” he said.

In the December 18 issue of the Anchorage Daily News, the paper reported that loosening gun laws on federal lands has been a priority of the National Rifle Association:

The changes to federal gun rules have long been sought by the National Rifle Association, which has been trying to modify the regulations for about five years, said spokeswoman Ashley Varner. The NRA and supporting senators claim that they want consistent gun laws on all federal lands.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), who drafted the Senate letter, acknowleded that they hope to push this issue through before the end of the Bush administration. The senators are hoping to capitalize on their relationship with Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne — a former Republican senator and Idaho governor — who has been sympathetic to the policy requests of Western politicians.

Tags:
wildlife, wildlife refuge, firearms, National Wildlife Refuge System, National Park Service