Easing of gun ban at parks draws protests

WASHINGTON -- Park rangers, retirees and conservation groups are protesting a plan by the Interior Department to reconsider regulations restricting loaded guns in national parks.

The groups say current regulations requiring that visitors to national parks render their weapons inaccessible were working and have made national parks among the safest places in America.

"Loaded guns are not needed and are not appropriate in our national parks," said Doug Morris, a retired park superintendent and member of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

Morris spoke Monday at a news conference called in response to an announcement Friday that the Interior Department will review gun laws on lands administered by the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The department will draw up rules by April 30 for public comment, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a letter to 50 senators who requested the review.

The National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates hailed the announcement as the first step to relax a decades-old ban on bringing loaded firearms into national parks.

"Law-abiding citizens should not be prohibited from protecting themselves and their families while enjoying America's national parks and wildlife refuges," said Chris Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist.

A Kempthorne spokesman said the review was in its early stages, but that it made sense to update regulations that were last changed in the early 1980s.

Conservation groups and park rangers disagreed, saying the plan amounted to surrender to the NRA.

The gun ban "has not been a major issue at national parks in recent years," said Bryan Faehner of the National Parks Conservation Association.

The restrictions require that guns be unloaded and placed somewhere that is not easily accessible, such as in a car trunk.