I know this really isn’t news to a lot of my western friends who don’t see what the big deal is with guns. But many people east of the Mississippi and west of the Rockies understand that when you get too many people with too many guns in small areas, bad things happen. Of course it’s not the gun’s fault. It’s the fault of people who don’t or can’t use common sense(or of course just violent people).
There’s a big difference between a guy hauling around a rifle in his pickup truck in Big Timber MT population 800, and a guy riding with a glove box pistol in northern Chicago as 1,000 kids just get out from school. I’ve always felt gun control issues should be local and based on population densities. As for the national parks, I will most definitely side with the anti-gun crowd on this issue. There are way too many “easy shots” in these places. Before guns, national parks had the lowest crime rates in the nation. There was never any real reason to allow guns back in. The system was functioning perfectly.
I also base my opinion on behavior I have seen in the national parks. I don’t what the exact cause is, but some people get a little rowdy once they get into the wide open spaces. We all feel considerably more freedom when entering our great and wild public lands. However, in some people this sense of freedom dissolves into recklessness. I know it, I’ve seen it.
On top of this, my main concern is for endangered animals. I feel we may see several situations in which a “grizzly bear got too close” and was gunned down by a hiker. The problem with that is everyone has a different definition of “too close”. And to be perfectly honest, most people who carry guns are simply people who are more frightened. The act of carrying a gun eloqently conveys this. The people carrying guns are probably going to have a definition of “too close” that would not really be that close at all. A heightened sense of fear to begin with being the primary reason for that definition.
I wish our ranger friends in the National Park system the best of luck in adapting to the strange new rules.
City people with a gun can be scary, especially in the woods, when the brush wiggles or a squirrel drops a pine cone.. That’s why I hang out in real Wilderness, no idiot rangers, no paved roads, no out houses, no gift shops. I like it deep into the back country, take a couple horses and get back there 35 miles away from the fruit cups from Chicago. I pack a 30/30 rifle with me, and a pistol, not because I’m scared either. I’m just smarter than you. Besides, did you ever try to beat a horse on the head with a club to kill him because he broke a leg, I stumbled onto a couple green horns like you doing that once, I shot the damn horse for em.
I’m not against taking a piece into the woods.–or the city for that matter Sometimes a little fire power might come in handy. I just don’t because I don’t want any problem with the law.
I used to live in Chicago for many years, and though sometimes I wished I was carrying at the time, it is good I wasn’t because of various traffic encounters and people whom I met. I feel the same about people that I see in the woods that aren’t respecting wildlife, other people or their property. Sometimes our law enforcement officials need a little help from law abiding, citizens, who are trained in the proper use of firearms. I say this because for awhile, I was involved in the field of law enforcment and I met people whom I never want to meet again without some form of protection.
I’ve been around a bit, Japan, 38 of the states, I’ve watched people doing strange things, I like the High Lonesome. If there were not guns, people would use wooden clubs, rocks, steel clubs, fists, spears, bows and arrows, ropes,poisons, As of late vehicles, etc. etc. This whining about guns is stupidity. And the insinuation that only cowards pack guns is also stupidity. Another reason to keep arms in the forest is to protect yourself from a rabid animal, lets say you get bit, if you then kill it, and get the blood from it tested you may or may not avoid those nasty rabies shots, I do believe those get shoved into your belly, daily for a couple weeks.. But like I said before, I don’t waste my valuable time hanging out around some national monument park.. Those are the most damaged Wilderness Country in the Nation and I do not support them.
In Glacier Park it wasnt illegal to have guns before, it required that ammunition be separate from the gun. Now that it is legal to have the gun and amunition together doesnt mean that it will attract brothers of the hood.
I think the main concern is easy potshots at park animals.
So in a crowded popular place like one of these National Parks, some dummy may fire off a pot shot at and animal attracting immediate attention to them selves.. Could be I suppose.
And an animal, tired, stressed by all the human noise and traffic, habituated to the constant human visitors watching his/her every move, could snap finally and take some pot bites outta some city mental midgets leg or arm.
Where upon those idiot park rangers track the irritated critter down and kill it. I wonder how many “innocent” visits to these parks have caused your poor animals to suffer and be killed over becoming to habituated by the swarming crowds and or fond of the Coleman Cooler..
Tear out the roads, signs, gift shops, cabins, cafes, camp grounds, out houses, and return it to what it was, and if you can’t walk it or ride a horsey through it, go golfing.
It’s cool Mikey, blame guns for everything that is wrong with human and animal encounters. Freaks with cameras never hurt them did they ?
I bet every one of these park visitors had a gun in their vehicle.. Those damn guns did it again Mike..
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=Animals+killed+by+vehicles+in+National+parks&btnG=Google+Search
The real issue it not whether ownership of guns should be legal or not. I remember an old NRA slogan “if guns are outlawed then only outlaws will own guns.” We are constitutionally guaranteed the right to own and bear arms.
The issue is how people use guns and if they own guns they should be legally licensed and trained. There is nothing more dangerous than an idiot who has a gun that doesn’t know how to use it or has it for illegal purposes. If I see someone using a gun in a disrespectful way, or even being abusive, whether it be a human or animal victim, I will make a point of letting them know how I feel and I will report them to the law.
Yes, our national parks are starting to look like urban areas. Americans can’t seem to enjoy mother nature without the convenience of a few strip malls, gas stations (to keep their gas guzzling RV’s and oversized vehicles) fueled, fast food restaurants (God forbid they are ever more than 20 minutes from a big mac or a slurpy–we gotta keep our obesity level high). Then we need some hotels and entertainment places–gotta have that tv or game boy toy. I think these kinds of people should stay home in their crackerbox houses, with their concrete strip malls. We have so much desolate city space, we don’t need urban sprawl moving into what used to be nice quiet countryside. But of course, man kind will only keep procreating like rats until our population is as big as China or India. Do we want that? Think about it.
Jim -
Interesting comments. I have to say I am personally offended by the Canyon strip mall right smack dab in the middle of Yellowstone.
I could rant about this issue until the cows come home. In fact I have! It’s called “this blog”, lol.
Greg – Guns aren’t the problem, people are. The question is how do you prevent morons from buying guns? Unfortunately you can’t – although some good people have tried.
As far as photographers, I’ve never seen anyone kill an endangered species with a camera lens. But you do have a point – there is no question that photographers push in on and manipulate animal behavior. I am reminded of a wolf killed in Yellowstone this year which was run over in the middle of a photographer/wolf watching jam. Huge SUV’s were parked all up and down the road, and a guy driving another large SUV could not see a wolf crossing in front of him on that road. The wolf was hidden by the giant front end of an SUV. I definitely chalk that death up to being overpressured by people who claim to love wildlife.
The word that comes to mind is moron. Sometimes they have guns, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have camera’s, sometimes they won’t. Somtimes they drive big vehicles, sometimes they don’t drive at all. Often they camp in the wilderness and leave their garbage behind. Usually they can’t figure out what it means to stay on the trai. Well, it minimizes their footprint and also it might keep them from meeting something (like a moose or a griz) that they aren’t prepared to meet. In all reality, guns don’t have much to do with it unless some jack@## figures s/he has to shot something or some person. I have been face-to-face with bears (black and griz), elk, moose, wolfies, coyotes and cats, and I didn’t need a firearm, but I didn’t do the usual stupid (moronic) things people do when faced with a wild creature either. It all boils down to if someone is going to venture out into the great unknown wilderness–they should educate themselves and be prepared about what to expect, how best to enjoy it, and how not to spoil it for the next person who wants to experience mother nature as well.