[CINC] Boston Globe columnist: Keep guns out of the parks

[Clare Fritzsche]

 From Derek:

for all vips. please be aware that loaded weapons are now allowed in
national parks.


Derek Lohuis
Channel Islands National Park
1901 Spinnaker Dr.
Ventura, CA 93001
805-658-5736



    Boston (MA) Globe
    Tuesday, December 16, 2008

    Keep guns out of the parks

    By Derrick Z. Jackson

    ENDING A 25-year-old ban, the Department of the Interior announced
    on Dec.
    5 that people who have a concealed weapons permit in their state can
    bring
    a loaded weapon into national parks, forests, and refuges. A week later,
    Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne confirmed what supporters of the
    Endangered Species Act have dreaded all year by issuing a ruling
    that lets
    individual federal agencies decide themselves whether their projects
    harm
    the environment - without being forced to consult with wildlife
    scientists.

    This completes eight years of political cruelty to animals and a final
    imposition of the National Rifle Association on what is left of public
    serenity in America - our shared natural sanctuaries. Critters and
    plants
    have less protection, and now humans have to wonder what is more
    dangerous:
    an alligator along the trail in the Everglades or the loaded camper
    carrying a loaded weapon.

    The lifting of the loaded gun ban was opposed by nearly everyone who
    works
    or has worked in a national park. The Association of National Park
    Rangers,
    the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, the National Parks
    Conservation Association, and the Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of
    Police (which advocates for park rangers) expressed disappointment
    at the
    action by the Interior Department. Under the expiring regulations, you
    could bring an unloaded weapon into a park, as long as it remained
    in a car
    trunk or other less-accessible location.

    Citing concerns about a possible increase in poaching and a federal
    statistic that only 1.65 violent crimes occur per 100,000 visitors in
    national parks, the organizations wrote in a joint letter on Dec. 5,
    "National parks are different from other public lands. The visitor
    population expects, demands and gets a higher degree of protection,
    enforcement and restriction in a national park. Furthermore, while
    national
    parks are amongst the safest areas to be in, the toll on the US Park
    Ranger
    is high: US Park Rangers are the most assaulted federal officers in the
    country. This vague, wide-open regulation will only increase the
    danger."

    To put in perspective how nuts the lifting of the ban is, it was enacted
    under President Reagan's Interior secretary, James Watt. Watt was so
    criticized by environmentalists that the great national park landscape
    photographer Ansel Adams called him "one of the most dangerous
    government
    officials in history." Of Reagan's environmental policies in
    general, Adams
    said, "The flow of bilge from the Reagan administration is a blot
    upon our
    history of literacy."

    If that environmentally illiterate administration saw fit to ban loaded
    guns in the parks a quarter-century ago, what does that make the Bush
    administration? The lifting of the gun ban and the lowering of the gate
    against scientists cap an era where wildlife refuge staffing has
    fallen 8.4
    percent since 2004, according to a Government Accountability Office
    report
    this fall. Real purchasing power for the refuges has fallen by 11
    percent
    since 2003.

    Most ironically, the acts come in the wake of an independent report last
    summer commissioned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that found
    that the
    law enforcement staff at our refuges needs to increase from 200
    full-time
    officers to at least 400. "Low staffing levels are leading to a
    substantial
    and critical lack of law enforcement coverage and capability at many
    refuges across the system. At many refuges, law enforcement coverage is
    insufficient to ensure the protection of resources and the safety of
    visitors and refuge staff."

    Yet the solution by the Bush administration is to starve law enforcement
    and general staff, cut off the scientists, and flood the parks and
    refuges
    with loaded guns. This has to be a priority for the Obama administration
    and a Democratic-led Congress to overturn. We cannot allow our sacred
    places to become the wild west.

    Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson at globe.com.

-- 
Clare Fritzsche
Volunteer Administration
Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary
Channel Islands National Park
Schedule for week of December 15:
TUE - 8am-12pm & 2-6pm, Santa Barbara (805) 966-7107 x366
WED - 8am-12pm & 2-6pm, Santa Barbara (805) 966-7107 x366
THU- 9:30am-11am, Oxnard (805) 382-6149 x105
           2-6pm, Santa Barbara (805) 966-7107 x366
FRI - 8am-12pm & 2-6pm, Santa Barbara (805) 966-7107 x366
Cellular: (805) 729-0127
Santa Barbara FAX: (805) 568-1582

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