Who's in charge in national parks -- individual states or the feds?

last updated: May 02, 2008 02:53:32 AM

In its last months in office, the Bush administration has decided to spend time and energy upending long- standing restrictions on carrying loaded guns in national parks. Proposed changes would end national rules and instead "reflect current state laws" on concealed weapons.

The administration is talking out of both sides of its mouth, a trick it has long since mastered.

The rule in place since the 1930s has been clear and easy to follow: Ready- to-fire guns are not allowed on national lands where hunting is not permitted. Visitors may possess unloaded, stored guns. In national parks that allow hunting, people can carry loaded guns during hunting season.

Advocates of the change argue that visitors need protection from animal or human attacks. Yet the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees notes that a visitor has a 1-in-708,000 chance of being a victim of a violent crime in a national park -- a far less likely event than being struck by lightning. The same is true for animal attacks. Yellowstone National Park, for example, had more than 47 million visitors from 1980 to 1997. In that time, 23 people were injured by bears -- or about 1 in 2 million.

This proposal means the opportunities for violence, poaching and altercations involving guns will be much, much greater. That guarantees that such incidents will increase.

The issue isn't about guns. It's about an agenda to denationalize national parks. In the Federal Register background to the proposed rule, the Bush administration asserts that federal regulations should "defer" to state laws and "respect the ability of states" to determine activities "within their borders."

Hmmm. Haven't we heard the reverse of this argument somewhere else? When the Bush administration wanted to make its friends in the auto industry happy, it argued that states should not be allowed to make their own rules. But when it wants to make the National Rifle Association happy, it argues that states should be allowed to set the guidelines.

So which is it?

National parks belong to all the people of the United States, not just those who live nearby. The public needs to tell the Bush administration that the old rules have served us well. Tell them to reject a patchwork of state rules and keep America's national parks truly national.