WASHINGTON — Visitors to Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes national parks in Colorado could soon be allowed to carry guns.
Under pressure from the gun lobby and 50 senators — including Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado — the Bush administration is preparing to change the regulation banning guns in national parks.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has directed his department to rewrite the policy for the national parks, with the idea that federal regulations should “mirror” state laws on guns in parks. That would mean guns could be allowed in national parks in states where they are allowed in state parks.
Colorado allows guns in its state parks, as do about two dozen other states, including much of the West.
“This Administration supports the long-standing tradition of affording states the right to determine those who may lawfully possess a firearm within their jurisdictions,” Kempthorne said in a Friday letter to the senators who wrote him last year, seeking a change in the federal law.
Allard, a Republican, signed that Dec. 14 letter. Sen. Ken Salazar, a Democrat, did not.
“He is looking into the issue and wants to ensure that sportsmen’s rights are protected,” said Salazar spokeswoman Stephanie Valencia.
“The concern here is that there is not an encroachment on the rights of law-abiding citizens to carry guns for hunting and recreational purposes,” Allard spokesman Steve Wymer said.
Hunting is banned in the vast majority of national parks. And, Interior Department spokesman Chris Paolino said, existing federal law already allows guns to be transported through national parks if they are unloaded and out of reach, such as in the trunk of a car.
Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would make the changes law if the Department of the Interior doesn’t change its rules. Salazar sits on the committee that would hear the bill in the Senate.
The National Rifle Association and others who want the change said they want to streamline a “patchwork” of varying rules. In some states, guns are allowed on federal land operated by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management but not the National Park Service, said Andrew Arulanandam, NRA spokesman.
Some also argue that people camping in parks need to protect themselves from animal attacks.
Park rangers oppose the idea of guns in national parks, said George Durkee, board member with the U.S. Park Rangers Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police.
“People overreact and shoot at the animals,” Durkee said. “We don’t need any scared kids with guns running around the woods.”
