Good News- National Park Carry

[WhiteFeather]

Please IF you have NOT written a letter of support NOW IS THE TIME to do so.....

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/...n.2690f28.html

Jerry Patterson: National parks gun ban unconstitutional

Web Posted: 05/27/2008 11:34 PM CDT

Special to the San Antonio Express-News

Recent displays of my Second Amendment rights have earned some harsh words from editorial writers at some of Texas' big city newspapers, including the San Antonio Express-News.

I've been criticized for acknowledging I carried a concealed handgun, as is my right, on recent visits to Big Bend National Park. A National Park Service rule prohibits carrying a loaded, concealed handgun.

“Evidently, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson was absent from school the day the Constitution was covered,” wrote the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board.

While that's an awfully cute jab, the reality is I've learned the Constitution over the course of a lifetime – not just one day. I've taken oaths to uphold and protect our Constitution – as a U.S. Marine and as a state elected official.

So look at the facts.

The ban on loaded firearms in National Park is not a law. It is a rule enacted by unelected bureaucrats of the National Park Service. There was no legislative process — these bureaucrats arbitrarily terminated this Constitutional right.

Fortunately, the clearly unconstitutional National Park Service rules on possessing firearms in federal parks are changing. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne recently proposed new rules that would respect state firearm laws and the Second Amendment.

Nonetheless, some editorial boards oppose allowing citizens the right to self-defense. Law-abiding Texans, they say, can't be trusted with guns and don't need them in the park, anyway, because no one else can have a gun.

On a recent hike in Big Bend, I found two expended 9mm shell casings, along with a discarded pack of Mexican cigarettes. The Texas Department of Public Safety ballistics lab confirmed two different weapons fired these casings. How could this be? There are no guns in Big Bend, because that's the rule, right?

Tell that to the rafters who were ambushed and killed several years ago in an area adjacent to the Big Bend known as Colorado Canyon. Tell that to the woman whose body, suffering from blunt force trauma to the head, was found floating in five feet of water at Amistad National Recreation Area.

In 2006, the most recent year available for statistics, the National Park Service says there were 116,588 reported offenses in national parks. That includes 11 killings, 35 rapes or attempted rapes, 61 robberies, 16 kidnappings and 261 aggravated assaults.

With the increasingly violent criminal activity along the Texas-Mexico border, carrying a firearm in remote areas along the border, including Big Bend National Park, is a choice every citizen should have.

Express-News editorial writers assert the current proposal to rescind the ban on lawfully carried firearms in national parks is a “solution in search of a problem.” But the problem is very real.

Americans are guaranteed our right to keep and bear arms. That right is unassailable and inviolate. To rescind that right when one crosses an arbitrary boundary into a national park is an unconstitutional act no different than rescinding our Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful search and seizure.

As an elected official, I take an oath that I will “to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.”

I do not regard such affirmations as anachronistic formalities. I guess you can call me an old-fashioned believer in the wisdom of those who penned the Bill of Rights and not much of a believer in the wisdom of editorial boards.

[WhiteFeather]

Time is runing out (June 30 is deadline) PLEASE write a letter of support for LTCF in national parks.

The anti-gunners are pushing their people for letters to oppose this change as you can see from their AG web sites.

Go to their web site and change their forms to send letters of support.

http://ga1.org/campaign/Guns_Comments

The NRA Wants Loaded Guns in Parks. What do YOU Want?
That's right, guns in parks. LOADED guns in parks. For some reason, the NRA thinks it's a great idea to let anyone and everyone possess loaded weapons in our national parks. Visitor safety? Who cares, right? You care. And you know that our current policies are smart and sound, and protect the rights of gun owners and visitors' safety equally. Allowing loaded guns in parks poses a threat to wildlife, park visitors, and puts our already over-burdened park rangers at even greater risk. The Bush Administration has opened up the regulations for comment. If they want comments, let's not disappoint them. Submit your comments TODAY and tell them to keep the current regulations in place. Take action!

Tell me more
Subject:




Dear [ Decision Maker ],


(Edit Letter Below)

I just found out that that administration is considering allowing loaded guns in national parks. How can this be? When I visit our national parks, I expect them to be safe and serene. But allowing guns in our national parks could change all that.

Right now, firearms must be unloaded and put away, but still can be legally transported. Assertions that firearms cannot be possessed or transported in national park are simply false. So why the rush to change the regulations? The law is reasonable, and it keeps visitors safe.

I urge you to keep the current regulations and not open up our national parks to loaded weapons. Thank you for considering my views.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

http://www.wnpj.org/node/10479

Do You Want Loaded Handguns In National Parks? -Send an Urgent Message Today

Do You Want Loaded Handguns In National Parks? -Send an Urgent Message Today

Keep Guns Out of Our National Parks

NPCA has created a letter that can be sent to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and your Members of Congress with just a few clicks of the mouse.
Please note: If you do not want to be contacted by NPCA in the future, simply uncheck the boxes on the bottom right side of the web page before sending your letter.

We need a few minutes of your time...


Bending under pressure from the gun lobby, the Department of the Interior issued a proposed rule on April 30. This new regulation would allow individuals to carry loaded, concealed handguns in National Parks and wildlife refuges if they are permitted to do so in the state in which the National Park or refuge is located. The rule change would repeal a Reagan-era regulation that prohibits guns from being transported through National Park lands unless they are unloaded and safely stored.

The Bush Administration has opened up this proposed regulation for public comment and we need you to speak out if we are to keep loaded handguns out of our National Parks!

To take action on this issue immediately, please visit the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).
Please send your letter today.

Sincerely,
Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund




Send us a comment
Email us at wave@WaveEdFund.org

Visit our web site: www.waveedfund.org to stay up to date on all of our efforts to prevent gun violence.

Our Mission
Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund is Wisconsin's only statewide grassroots organization solely dedicated to reducing gun violence, injuries and deaths. Through research, education and advocacy, WAVE Educational Fund raises awareness about firearm violence throughout the state, provides up to date information to the public and to policy makers, and promotes common sense measures that will bring our state to the forefront of gun violence prevention.
WAVE is a member group of WNPJ

[Mosinshooter762]

Ironic to have a park called "Independence National Park", and yet you are banned from carrying, and have other liberties stripped. I would like to see this changed for the better.

[LBaker]

I sent my comments. I mentioned that I have never been to Independance Park because I could not defend myself there. Come to think of it, I haven't been to Gettysburg since they opened the new visitor center either...

[Longshot]

done

10 characters

[unloved]

Done.

I hope everyone here is taking this opportunity to make their voices heard.

[Longshot]

Well, I got a response today!

June 25, 2008



Dear :

Thank you for informing me of your concerns about allowing loaded firearms in national parks. I appreciated hearing from you on this important issue and understand your concerns.

As you may know, the U.S. Department of the Interior has recently proposed updating its regulations regarding the carrying of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. According to the Interior Department, “the proposed update to existing regulations would allow an individual to carry a concealed weapon in national parks and wildlife refuges if the individual is authorized to carry a concealed weapon on similar state lands in the state in which the national park or refuge is located.”

In addition, the House of Representatives is currently considering legislation introduced by Congressman Jeb Hensarling known as H.R. 5434, the Protecting Americans from Violent Crime Act. If enacted into law, this legislation would prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from establishing or enforcing any regulation that prohibits an individual from possessing, transporting, or carrying a firearm in any unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System if that individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing, transporting, or carrying the firearm.

Following its introduction, the House leadership referred H.R. 5434 to the Natural Resources Committee for review. Should I have the opportunity to consider this measure during the 110th Congress, you can rest assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind and take actions as appropriate. I will also monitor closely any decisions on the part of the Department of the Interior pertaining to these matters.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please feel free to contact me again about any issue of interest or concern to you.


Sincerely,

Paul E. Kanjorski
Member of Congress

[SSGF109]

QUOTE: "Here is part of text - bad news is NO OPEN CARRY, we will fix that in future, just be glad for right now that we are going to get concealed carry permit exemption."

It beats not carrying at all!

[WhiteFeather]

Originally Posted by SSGF109

QUOTE: "Here is part of text - bad news is NO OPEN CARRY, we will fix that in future, just be glad for right now that we are going to get concealed carry permit exemption."

It beats not carrying at all!

THAT'S THE TRUTH!

June 30, 08 is the last day to make your voice heard, so PLEASE send your letters of support and for all of you who already did your part THANKS

[WhiteFeather]

UPDATE !!!
Got this one from the NRA,
The new deadline for submitting comments is extend to August 8, 2008.

Department of the Interior Extends Deadline for Comments Regarding Right-to-Carry in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges Until August 8 2008
Like a quarterback taking a knee in the fourth quarter, two of Congress's most ardent opponents of our Right to Keep and Bear Arms are trying to run out the clock on efforts to enhance your right to self-defense in our national parks and wildlife refuges.

For two months, we have been asking NRA members and gun owners to submit comments in support of allowing law-abiding citizens to carry their legally-owned firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges -- and tens of thousand of you have done so. The deadline to submit comments expired on June 30 -- or so we thought.

Rather than closing the proscribed comments period as scheduled and moving toward finalizing this federal regulation, U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona), succeeded in delaying the implementation of the final rule by bullying the Department of the Interior (their respective congressional subcommittees have oversight of national parks) to extend the deadline for comments an additional 30 days! In a letter to Secretary Kempthorne, Senator Akaka and Representative Grijalva asked that the public comment period be extended, citing the recent decision in the District of Columbia v. Heller.

In truth, however, now that the Supreme Court has affirmed that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right, it is more important than ever that we move toward final resolution on this matter and extend the most basic right of self-defense to law-abiding citizens visiting national parks and refuges.

The goal of their strategy is clear. Extending the public comment period amounts to a blatant and intentional stalling tactic; further pushing back resolution on this matter, possibly until after the election, into a new Administration. This needless extension will also allow opponents of carrying guns in national parks (like the Humane Society of the U.S. and the National Parks Conservation Association) to rally their troops to express their opposition to this commonsense proposal.

While we disagree with the decision to extend the comments period on this issue, it is now more important than ever that we give the anti-gunners what they profess to want-additional comments. Gun owners, Right-to-Carry permit holders, and all Second Amendment supporters must deluge the Department of the Interior with comments in support of this proposal!
The new deadline for submitting comments is August 8, 2008.

Please submit your comments on-line at:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspubli...0000648066022a

Or in writing to:
Public Comments Processing
Attn: 1024-AD70
Division of Policy and Directives Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222
Arlington, VA 22203

Please act today and forward this message and request to your family, friends, and fellow firearm owners!

If you didn't before PLEASE write a letter or email for support of this concept