Don't 'pander' to NRA

The proposal of several U.S. Senators to allow transporting of firearms in National Parks is political pandering to the NRA. Common sense citizens should voice their objections to these changes to the National Park Service (NPS) before the August 5 deadline. Send Senators Tester and Baucus a copy.

Existing regulations have worked for decades. In the eighteen years I was a seasonal NPS employee, I never heard a visitor complain about his firearms being unloaded and put away. I recently attended a memorial service in Glacier National Park for a former ranger and spoke to many NPS employees before and after. Not a one had received a complaint about the present regulations.

Personal protection against crime isn’t a valid reason. Crime rates in all major categories in the NPS are lower than Montana’s. Check rates back to 2001 you’ll find major crimes are three to forty times more likely in Montana than in a national park. The likelihood of being a crime victim in a National Park is 1 in 1,708,333.

If crime is a consideration, the solution is simpleŠproperly fund the National Park Service so it can hire an adequate number of Rangers rather than reduce their numbers. The arguments citing personal protection are merely a form of fear mongering.

Changing the rules endangers Park Rangers who spend time attempting to solve domestic confrontations, many arising from alcohol and drug use. Studies show an NPS officer is twelve times more likely to be killed or injured as a result of an assault than an FBI agent.

Present regulations aren’t confusing. A change to state provisions would lead to massive inconsistencies from state-to-state, and sometimes; in a single park since some parks embrace land in two or three states, like Yellowstone.

Visitor safety will be at greater risk from persons shooting unnecessarily at animals, almost all of which pose no threat to them, including most grizzly confrontations. Stray bullets and wounded animals would endanger families. There is a group of “slob shooters” who would be firing at almost anything; think of the bullet-riddled highway and Forest Service signs you have seen. Some persons view any wildlife as a danger and would blast away. At Sunset Crater National Monument I had a family come off the trail with a snake draped over a long stick, a harmless king snake. It was flatter than a pancake. They had beaten it with sticks because they thought it was a young rattlesnake and the “young rattlers are more dangerous and deadly than full-grown ones”, according to them. If they had possessed a gun, bullets would have been flying everywhere.

Poaching is a serious problem in several parks and will become worse if regulations are changed.

Poaching deer and bear, the latter for certain parts, is a major problem in Shenandoah Park and would get worse. In the ‘70s, a Point Reyes Ranger was fatally shot in the back by a poacher. Some elk have been poached in National Parks and all that was taken was choice teeth.

Unfortunately present NPS employees cannot speak out since they would lose their job. This happened to NPS Park Police Chief Chambers when she spoke out against the dangers of understaffing in 2007.

There are many other federal, state and local properties on which you cannot carry or possess firearms. Postal properties, some schools, some school events, courtrooms and buildings, portions of airports and certain airplanes are among them. Montana does not allow firearms in financial institutions.

Ernest Scherzer

Trout Creek