National parks may follow in FL's quiet footsteps in relaxing gun restrictions in wild lands

http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/467785.html

More guns may enter U.S. parks

National parks may follow in Florida's quiet footsteps in relaxing gun

restrictions in wild lands.

Mon, Mar. 24, 2008

Marion Hammer is the executive director of the Unifed Sportsmen of Florida

and the NRA's chief lobbyist in Tallahassee.

WEB VOTE

Should the Bush administration drop restrictions on loaded weapons in parks?

Yes 348 84%

No 66 16%

Total Votes: 414

Along with cameras, coolers and camping gear, visitors to Biscayne and

Everglades national parks sometimes pack something else: Guns.

Bonnie Foist, chief ranger at Everglades for a decade, said rangers

encounter enough illegal firearms -- they wrote 132 violations last year --

that it's the first thing they ask about when stopping someone.

' `Do you have a weapon aboard or in your car?' It's the standard

question,'' Foist said. ``We want to know what we're facing.''

What they may soon face is a lot more visitors with weapons -- and a new

right to keep them loaded. Under pressure from 50 U.S. senators and the

National Rifle Association, the Bush administration is considering dropping

a 25-year-old federal restriction on loaded weapons in parks.

National Park Service rules already allow guns -- but only unloaded and

stored so they are not ''readily accessible.'' Gun-rights advocates argue

that restriction infringes on their ability to defend themselves.

''Having a firearm loaded puts you in a better position to protect

yourself,'' said Barbara Jean Powell, spokeswoman for the Everglades

Coordinating Council, a coalition of hunting and outdoors groups. 'Every

time I read about some woman walking in a park who gets abducted and

murdered, I think, `If she had a firearm, she might have had a chance.' ''

The change is opposed by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees --

which sometimes speaks for rangers on charged issues -- gun-control

advocates and environmental groups. They say it will only make parks more

dangerous.

Sara Fain, program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association

in South Florida, called the push ``an election-year ploy by the NRA.''

''You take a holiday weekend in Biscayne National Park. It's extremely

crowded. You have plenty of alcohol around. You mix that with guns and you

have a lethal combination,'' she said. ``The parks have been safe for 25

years. Why are we looking to change the rule?''

The issue has triggered a political skirmish on Capitol Hill, with senators

on both sides proposing legislation and sending letters to the Interior

Deparment, which announced it would review the policy and issue new rules by

April 30. The change pushed by 50 senators, including Florida Republican Mel

Martinez, would require national parks, preserves and refuges to follow

firearms law in each state.

The Washington debate sharply contrasts with that in Tallahassee, where

there was little dissent as the state repealed what until two years ago were

strong bans on guns, loaded or unloaded, on most wild lands in Florida --

with the exception of hunting weapons in season.

In 2006, state lawmakers lifted a weapons ban in national forests and state

parks, facing virtually no opposition. A few months ago, the Florida Fish

and Wildlife Conservation Commission followed up by making the same change

in wildlife management areas, which includes the Big Cypress National

Preserve and many state forests, where only hunting weapons were previously

allowed in season.

CHANGE COMING JULY 1

That change, which goes into effect on July 1, also passed without protest

or media attention. It was included in a long list of hunting changes, but

Don Coyner, the FWC's section leader for public hunting, said the

''liberalization'' of gun rules was outlined on the agency website and in

presentations to the commission.

''There just was not a lot of concern on either side of the fence,'' he

said, although some state wildlife officers had questioned the move. Coyner

said FWC staff proposed the change to address complaints from the public and

to resolve conflicts with state statutes, he said. The original reason for

the decades-old restrictions -- to limit poaching -- also has changed, he

said.

''Our deer herds were plummeting [then]. We don't feel that's a valid

concern now,'' Coyner said. `We just felt it was the right and proper thing

to do. It's about freedom.''

Powell, who had long urged the FWC move, dismissed critics' suggestions of

outbreaks of gunplay as a scare tactic. ``There are tens of millions of

Americans carrying guns every day for self-protection and we aren't shooting

each other.''

Under the changes, no one would be allowed to openly display weapons, but

people with concealed weapons permits could carry loaded guns. Others could

possess them in parks if they are secured in a case or container

inaccessible to minors.

Arthur Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun

Violence, said the parks push was part of an NRA strategy to put ''more guns

in more places.'' Advocates for restrictions were already struggling to

stave off a push to allow weapons in work places, an effort that has

re-emerged in Tallahassee this year.

''It's one of those [issues] we felt we couldn't win, and we have other

issues we had to concentrate on,'' Hayhoe said.

Marion Hammer, executive director of the Unifed Sportsmen of Florida and the

NRA's chief lobbyist in Tallahassee, said the old rules were

unconstitutional and confusing and changes were ''common sense.'' For

instance, she said, a gun owner who had to drive through a wildlife

management area, such as the Big Cypress, to get home would be in technical

violation.

Hammer, citing two hikers murdered in 2006 in the Ocala National Forest,

said wilderness area also had become increasingly dangerous, targeted by

serial killers who knew victims would be unarmed.

''In addition to defense from two-legged predators, there are also

four-legged predators,'' she said. ``A law-abiding person ought to be able

to carry any legal firearm anywhere they go.''

National Park Service statistics show parks have actually become safer

places, with major criminal offenses declining by 25 percent from 1995 to

2006, dropping from 6,009 to 4,485.

URBAN WEAPONS

With urban Miami on the borders, rangers in South Florida's national parks

and preserves aren't surprised when a Glock shows up in a glovebox or boat

console -- but they don't particularly want to see more of them.

''Any time there is a possibility of increasing or enhancing the number of

firearms you have around people,'' Foist said, ``there is a concern for law

enforcement.''

Didier Carod, acting chief ranger at Biscayne National Park, said he knows

many owners of expensive yachts and boats carry weapons. ''In this

environment, I wouldn't necessarily think it's a bad thing,'' he said.

In 2003, Biscayne landed at No. 6 on The Fraternal Order of Police list of

''most dangerous national parks'' because of its small ranger force (now

four, with two in training) and long list of risks -- drug and migrant

smugglers, lobster and fish poachers, drunken boaters and holiday weekend

partyers, all topped by a nuclear power plant on its isolated border.

''I'm kind of biased because I'm always armed,'' Carod said. ``I take a gun

everywhere, just to drop my child off at school.''

But he still thinks the existing rules work well, allowing weapons but with

the safety margin of keeping it locked up and unloaded. ``I have seem many

times where emotions take over and if they had a firearm on their person,

they would have done the stupid thing.''

Rob Hotakainen of the McClatchy Washington bureau contributed to this

report.