As part of the credit card reform bill, an amendment to relax a ban on bringing loaded guns into National Parks also passed. The gun amendment reinstates a last-minute executive order by Bush.
From the L.A. Times:
The vote was 67 to 29, with 27 Democrats and one independent joining 39 Republicans to approve an amendment overturning federal rules that required gun owners to carry their firearms unloaded and stored while visiting national parks.
Instead, states would set policies within their borders, even on federal land.
The amendment was added by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). However, Coburn does not believe the amendment will be able to hold up in conference committees:
The wide margin of support may not ensure success, said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), its principal sponsor. He said his proposal would probably be dropped when a conference committee meets to iron out differences between the House and Senate credit card bills.
From the Bowling Green Daily News::
In the past year, there have been 41 rapes, 92 robberies, 16 kidnappings and 5,944 other felony violations in our national parks.
In January, a few days before former President George W. Bush left office, he implemented a rule allowing people to carry loaded guns into parks and wildlife refuges if they had a permit for a concealed weapon and the state permitted weapons in parks.
But in March, that was overturned by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly and President Barack Obama chose not to appeal her decision.
According to Wikipedia, the National Park Service owns about 78M acres of land as National Parks, Monuments, or Preserves. The National Park System receives over 270,000,000 visitors each year through out the 390 units. In contrast, New York state is about 30M acres in size. Thus, the crime rate in National Parks appears to be very low if one imagines what the crime statistics for NY state must be.
I realize that Democrats have lost the issue of gun control, and I myself am not in favor of pursuing major gun control laws. But what about National Parks? Should guns be allowed? I don’t think allowing guns will increase violence much if at all from law-abiding citizens (criminals will do what they will do regardless of the laws).
But what about wildlife poaching? Apparently, federal data on poaching is not kept, but I was able to find a recent article from SFGate with some state statistics:
California officials acknowledge the pickings here are particularly easy because there are only 374 game wardens to patrol this state with thousands of miles of mountains and seashore.
<snip>
Although this year's California poaching statistics are not yet compiled, records show that between 2005, when the economy was relatively good, and 2007, when it was faltering, the number of poaching-related violations increased from 14,150 to 17,840. Illegal bear kills alone went from nine to 49.
Most poachers are not caught, and it is conceivable that most small-time poachers might not have criminal records and be able to legally bring in firearms. Poaching undoubtably occurs in National Parks already, but lax state rules may facilitate an increase in poaching in National Parks. The ability to patrol 78M acres in extremely limited, and it is not unreasonable to view that the ban on loaded guns is a management tool to limit poaching.