After years of prodding, the Bush Administration finally is taking away the ban on the Second Amendment in National Parks! Several gun organizations, lead by the Virginia Citizens Defense League www.vcdl.org have been pushing and lobbying for this change for years. For some reason the Bush administration has finally done the right thing. In the very near future, concealed handgun permit holders will be able to carry in National Parks located in states that recognize their permits. This is huge, the National Park System is basically run by a bunch of hippies, and they all fought against this change. Even the Park Rangers did not want “regular people” to have the right to self defense.
You will here crowing from the NRA, but trust me, they joined up at the end, this was lead by the Virginia Citizens Defense Leauge that sent a petition for rule making to the Department of the Interior years ago. The VCDL was joined by a large number of pro 2A groups representing over 1 million members. They also were instrumental in getting DEMOCRAT Jim Webb on board. In fact, 50 US Senators wrote to the Bush Administration in support of the Second Amendment, 9 were Demos.
One might think this is a small thing, but it is not, millions and millions of acres of our country are now respecting the Constitution! In fact, many people have been unknowingly breaking the law by driving on highways run by the National Park Service. For Example, if you drive on the GW Parkway in VA, you were breaking the law if you had a concealed handgun, even though Virginia gave you the permit. There are countless other examples but now the times are a changin’. There have been all kinds of criminal drug activity and assaults in National parks, but anyone who wanted to visit hand to leave their Constitutional rights behind, finally that has come to and end.
Let me be clear, this rule change states that if you have a right to carry concealed in the state the National Park is located, then you know have a right to carrry concealed in that park. There is some issue with federal buildings still, so it is up to you to know the law. Also, this change will not go into affect until a month after it is published in the Federal Registry, this should mean it goes into affect some time in January, again, keep up with the law if you are affected by this.
here are some more links for info
here is the AP report, including whining from the left http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GUNS_NATIONAL_PARKS?SITE=VTBEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
here is the DOI Press Release http://www.doi.gov/news/08_News_Releases/120508.html
again, it is up to you to know the law, but this is a major win, the only one I can think of during the Bush administration, other than the failure (Thank God) to renew the Clinton Gun Ban but that was done by Tom Delay not Bush.
