Q: Can I carry my concealed pistol in National Parks?
A: In short, soon. On May 22, 2009, President Obama signed the "Credit Card Accountability, Reliability and Disclosure Act of 2009" as part of the package of bills ostensibly meant to partially restructure credit practices in the United States. Contained in the bill in Section 512 was an amendment entitled "Protecting Americans From Violent Crime." Like many bills, it contained "Congressional Findings" including "(1) The Second Amendment to the Constitution provides that 'the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'"
It refers to CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Title 36, Section 2.4(a)(1) and Section 27.42 of Title 50, which for many years prohibited the possession and carrying of essentially all weapons in National Parks or Wildlife Refuges. The law amends those sections to add the following language:
"(h) Notwithstanding any other provision in this Chapter, a person may possess, carry, and transport concealed, loaded, and operable firearms within a national park area in accordance with the laws of the state in which the national park area, or that portion thereof, is located, except as otherwise prohibited by applicable Federal law."
So, essentially, the
National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges will now be subject to the concealed pistol laws of the states in which they are located. The new law takes effect on February 22, 2010.
But, the picture is not yet crystal-clear. The NRA Institute For Legislative Action (
www.NRAILA.org) points out, "However, many details remain to be worked out. Reports indicate that National Park Service officials are debating issues such as the definition of federal facilities, where firearms will remain prohibited under a different federal law."
So, while the Amendment was an important step in clarifying the law and bringing consistency to the legal environment for those of us with CPLs, it is important to note that there will probably be "facilities" within Parks and Wildlife Refuges where our lawful concealed pistols will still be prohibited.
The history of this law is interesting in that these changes were briefly implemented by a rules change under the Bush administration from January 9, 2009 until March 19, 2009, when the US District Court in DC issued an injunction preserving the old rules that prohibited self-defense firearms in the 83,600,000 acres of National Park System land and 90,790,000 acres under the jurisdiction of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Congress saw fit to act by passing the amendment to the Credit Card Accountability Act as a way to clarify the situation and take the question out of the hands of the courts. While there appears to be no connection between credit cards and concealed pistols, it should be noted that such apparently non-related amendments are common in Congress. In fact, a late amendment to the 1986 Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA) is responsible for artificially limiting the supply of transferable fully-automatic firearms in the United States. This time, however, the amendment in question cuts in the direction of common sense and safety, rather than the direction of irrational fear and paranoia.
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