Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012

Blue Ridge Now reports

According to the National Parks Conservation Association, the bill would open much of the National Park System to hunting and recreational shooting. The group contends that the proposed law includes “an exemption of sorts” only for units of the National Park System specifically designated as national parks or national monuments — such as the Blue Ridge Parkway and Carl Sandburg Home Historic Site.

Known as the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012, the bill’s sponsors called it a “landmark legislative package” to protect and advance opportunities for outdoor sportsmen across the country, according to a recent news release from U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler’s office.

The 397 units of the National Park System include a multitude of designations, the association argued, including national military parks like Gettysburg, national memorials like Wright Brothers, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Flight 93, national historical parks like San Antonio Missions and Harper’s Ferry and many others.

What's your opinion? Doesn't this sound like more bullying by the gun lobby? Please leave a comment.

Our First Fatalities from Gun Violence after Allowing Gun Carry in National Parks

There is no need, no useful benefit, to having people bringing their firearms into national parks, any more than they belong in libraries, county courthouses, or any other public location, with the exception of firing ranges intended for the use of practicing with firearms.  It is uncivil in concept.

We have our first gun lunatic firearm death of a law enforcement, less than 24 hours into 2012.

Guns kill people; people with guns kill people. They are not spoons or screwdrivers.  They are weapons.

So unnecessary, so damned unnecessary; this is one more person - the shooter - who should never have had a firearm  More children denied a parent, another spouse who has to bury the person they loved.

ALL of it, avoidable; all of it preventable, in so far as firearms are so much more lethal than other possible weapons for those bent on violence.

Mount Rainer National Park Shooting: National Park Service Ranger Shot, Killed

MIKE BAKER   01/ 1/12 09:06 PM ET  
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK, Wash. — A Mount Rainier National Park ranger was fatally shot following a New Year's Day traffic stop, and the 368-square-mile park in Washington state was closed as dozens of officers searched for the armed gunman over snowy and rugged terrain.
Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said late Sunday afternoon Benjamin Colton Barnes, a 24-year-old believed to have military experience and survivalist skills, was a "strong person of interest" in the slaying of Margaret Anderson. Authorities recovered Barnes' vehicle, which had weapons and body armor inside, Troyer said.
Authorities believed the gunman was still in the woods with an assault rifle. They asked people to stay away from the park, and for those already inside to leave.
Troyer said there were about 100 people hunkered down in lodges and cabins on the mountain. They were told to stay put because they could be in the line of fire. Armored vehicles were being brought in to ferry them safely out of the park.
"We do have a very hot and dangerous situation," he said.
At around 10:20 a.m. Sunday, a park service employee had unsuccessfully tried to pull a man over during a routine traffic stop.
Anderson set up a road block with her vehicle in the middle of the road, said park spokeswoman Lee Taylor. The man pulled up to Anderson about 11 a.m., jumped out, fired and ran off, she said.
Troyer said when authorities arrived they were also shot at, but no one else was hit. About 150 officers, including officials from the Washington State Patrol, U.S. Forest Service and FBI, were on the mountain. They had not made contact with the gunman and did not know where he was, Troyer said.
A military-style, armored vehicle was seen as police deployed resources into the evening.
Authorities said earlier that Anderson's body had been removed from the park, but Troyer said police have been unable to get to her because of concern over potentially being in the line of fire.
Park superintendent Randy King said Anderson is a mother of two young daughters who has served as a park ranger for about four years. King said Anderson's husband also was working as a ranger elsewhere in the park at the time of the shooting.
"It's just a huge tragedy – for the family, the park and the park service," he said.
Adam Norton, a neighbor of Anderson's in the small town of Eatonville, Wash., said the ranger's family moved in about a year ago. He said they were not around much, but when they were Norton would see Anderson outside with her girls.
"They just seemed like the perfect family," he said.
The town of about 3,000 residents, which is a logging community overlooking Mount Rainier, is very close knit, he said.
"It's really sad right now," Norton said. "We take care of each other."
It has been legal for people to take loaded firearms into Mount Rainier since 2010, when a controversial federal law went into effect that made possession of firearms in national parks subject to state gun laws.
The shooting occurred on an unseasonably sunny and mild day. The park, which offers miles of wooded trails and spectacular vistas from which to see 14,410-foot Mount Rainier, draws between 1.5 million and 2 million visitors each year.
The Longmire station served as headquarters when the national park was established in 1899. Park headquarters have moved but the site still contains a museum, a hotel, restaurant and gift shop, which are open year-round.
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Associated Press writer Donna Gordon Blankinship contributed from Seattle.

Washington State Park Shooting

The Seattle Times reports on a deadly shooting which took place in a State park near Seattle.

A shooting at a state park near Seattle that left two dead and four wounded stemmed from an argument between two groups, one of which was celebrating a birthday party, investigators said Sunday.

King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said killed in the shooting Saturday night at Lake Sammamish State Park were one man from each group: a 33-year-old from Kent, Wash., and a 30-year-old from Seattle.

The park is about 20 miles east of downtown Seattle.

One of the dead men was found with a gun on his body, while the other was not found with a weapon, Urquhart said. Their names were not released.

The violence erupted around 9 p.m. at the edge of the lake between the two groups, who were about 50 to 75 yards apart. Urquhart said investigators are still determining what the groups were arguing about and what caused the dispute to escalate into gunfire.

Isn't Seattle the place where they had that big controversy about the laws allowing guns in parks? Or would this State park be covered by the law Obama signed last year, Obama the biggest anti-gun president in recent memory?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Guns Allowed in National Parks

The New York Times published an article written by several people with differing viewpoints on the recent legislation . The law passed by Congress this week to reform credit cards, of all things, now allows gun owners with state permits to carry guns in public to take their loaded handguns and other firearms into the parks. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) sponsored the concealed weapons bill by attaching it as an amendment to the Credit Card reform bill of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.).

Ted Kerasote, author, avid hunter and resident of Grand Teton National Park says the bill will increase poaching.

Ever since Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, was created in 1872, parks and wildlife refuges have been the de facto hunting grounds of armed people tempted by animals who have lost their wariness. Living within Grand Teton National Park, I see this all the time: a deer gunned down by the side of the road, its antlers chopped off; a moose waylaid just inside the park boundary; a coyote shot as it watches a car go by. These killings are perennial, often remove spectacular, genetically fit individuals, and create one more enforcement burden for park rangers.

Allowing visitors to carry loaded firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges, as legislation just passed by Congress does, will only make such poaching worse while making a ranger’s job more risky.

The reason it will make the Park Rangers' job more difficult was well summed up by Paula Dinerstein, senior counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Currently, a ranger can in effect assume that a loaded weapon will be used for poaching and prevent its use, without having to catch someone in the act in a remote place.

John R. Lott Jr., senior research scientist at the University of Maryland and the author of “More Guns, Less Crime” and “The Bias Against Guns,” highlighted the success of concealed carry laws in general and in the State of Florida in particular.

Here is a prediction. Just like the ruckus over passing concealed handgun laws, the fears about guns in national parks will soon be forgotten.

Given the size of the National Parks and the relatively low population density, even in tourist season, this legislation is unlikely to have much impact on crime one way or another. So, Prof. Lott's prediction is probably a good one, at least in part. I'd say concealed carry laws may very well continue to be a topic of discussion long after the National parks issue is forgotten.

What's your opinion? Is this "much ado about nothing?" Why did Sen. Coburn introduce the amendment the way he did, by attaching it to another unrelated piece of legislation? Isn't that the way the Tiarht Amendments were done? Is there some advantage in doing it that way? This method doesn't seem to avoid the spotlight, but does it facilitate passage in some way?

Is this another victory for the gun lobby? Do you think they could be successfully accomplishing exactly what they fear from the anti-gun folks, a gradual and incremental movement towards their ultimate goal? What do you think that goal is?

I'm afraid the overall direction is a deceptively dangerous one for America. Pro gun folks want more guns and less restrictions, on college campuses, in churches, in national parks, everywhere. Often these changes are extremely controversial, actually going against the wishes of those most directly involved, most of the students in colleges, most of the pastors in churches and most of the Park Rangers in national parks. Yet, the gun crowd keeps getting its way.

As the restrictions are lessened, more guns need to be produced. Record sales have been reported over the last year. Huge increased in the total number of guns will inevitably result in proportionally huge increases in gun flow into criminal hands. As this increases, law enforcement won't be able to keep up with the increases in gun violence. That's my prediction.

Professor Lott and his fellow gun lovers always seem to disassociate themselves from the misuse of guns, they are after all, law abiding citizens. Unfortunately, such a disassociation is impossible. As we have seen, almost all guns in America which are in the hands of criminals today started out as legitimately owned firearms. Gun flow is inexorable and whether the pro gun crowd want to admit it or not, they are involved. It all starts with them. It is an unavoidable result of the policies they fight for.

What's your opinion?