This Land, Your Land

The Smoky Mountains Information blog has a long piece about possessing guns in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which we would think is more or less applicable to North Carolina's other national parks and national wildlife refuges.

As of February 22, federal law will allow people to legally possess firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges under whatever federal, state and local laws apply to the geographic location. The change in rules was approved last May as an amendment to a bill imposing new restrictions on credit card companies.

Smoky Mountains Information provides a statement from Great Smoky Mountains National Park about what will be allowable in the park, and links to firearms laws in North Carolina and Tennessee.

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees calls the new regulation "a significant departure from long-established, common-sense gun regulations that allowed visitors to possess guns in parks only if they were stowed out of reach and unloaded."

In their statement, the Retirees write about 11 national parks that show "the range of likely harms." This includes Great Smokies, which the statement says provides "an example of one of the problems visitors will face with the new law. In North Carolina, there are few gun restrictions and visitors could be seen openly carrying guns. However, if you happen to be a gun-carrying visitor, you will need a 'carry permit' when you cross into the part of the park located in Tennessee." (How did it come to pass that Tennessee has stricter gun control than North Carolina?)

The Retirees also see specific system-wide problems:

"1) More guns in national parks increase the likelihood of shooting at wildlife and some historic resources, such as prehistoric petroglyphs.

"2) More guns in parks increases the risk to rangers.

"3) More guns in parks increases the risk to visitors in places like campgrounds where disagreements, often fueled by alcohol, sometimes occur.

"4) National parks have always been hospitable to visitors from around the world and are seen as 'sanctuaries' where people could get away from the routines, threats and risks they face in their daily lives. But more guns will change those perceptions.

"5) Until now, one regulation pertaining to firearms applied to all 392 areas in the National Park System. But now each of those areas will be subject to the laws of the state in which it lies. This is likely to lead to significant confusion by visitors traveling though parks in a number of states.

"6) Federal buildings in parks will now have to be signed to prohibit firearms and conceivably security devices will need to be used."