National Parks firearms rules?

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madkiwi

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We are going to Yosemite this weekend, driving through the park but staying in a rented home just outside the park boundary.

I want to take my Springfield 1911, but am confused by the rules. According to the regulations here

In order to transport weapons through NPS areas they must be dismantled and adequately cased or packed in such a way as to prevent their use.
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The actual law says something quite different

unloaded weapons may be possessed within a temporary lodging or mechanical mode of conveyance when such implements are rendered temporarily inoperable or are packed, cased or stored in a manner that will prevent their ready use
Click to expand...

Note the difference? The law says "rendered temporarily inoperable OR are packed, cased or stored....." but they wrote the regulations to say something else.

Anyway, I don't want to be a test case. If I put the pistol in a locked range bag is that adequate? Ammo and magazines somewhere else? Or do I need to also remove the slide or something? Remove the return spring, barrel and bushing from the slide? Remove the firing pin and extracter?

HELP!!!!
 
I always consider the safety and protection of my family before anything else, and take the precautions I deem appropriate to best fulfill those needs. This may, or may not, help you in determining whether or not to take your 1911 into Yosemite.
 
To go to my hunting grounds I must travel through a "national monument." The warning signs provide the intructions above. Theoretically I must take the bolt from the rifle(s) and dissasemble all handguns. Fortunately, I know the ranger. I have no ill intent.

A lesson to be learned. Everytime I traverse the "national monument" I see all manner of game in their "sanctuary" while I see relatively few just down the road. Topography and vegetation does not differ. This is very telling from a zoology perspective: The animals have learned over time that this area, in the midst of an unpopulated area, is a "gun-free" zone. If deer and elk learn this, do you think it is beyond the grasp of sub-human criminals?
 
The animals have learned over time that this area, in the midst of an unpopulated area, is a "gun-free" zone.
Click to expand...
You think that's something ... :)

In the little town we moved out of last year, the deer hung out at the golf course (no hunting) and - get this - on the shooting range right next door (where no hunting is allowed either).

So it ain't the guns, it's where they get shot at or not shot at.

I've had deer feeding a hundred yards away on the golf course while I plinked away on the gun range.
 
Where there is NO Hunting the wild animals will become quite bold around people.
Deer in the front yards and they may just look up when you drive by. I have doves feeding in my yard year round. White geese feeding on the hospital lawn at the Little League ball field and behind city hall.
Don't shoot at them and they will come.
 
Big Bend National Park operates on a "no display of firearms" system. I guess they know that if they went to worrying about guns, they'd have to bust half the people who come through...

I've found that being somewhat unobtrusive, and avoiding anything that would arouse a Smokey Bear's interest, is the easiest way to deal with any Park/Monument/whatever.

Art
 
You sure don't want to be a test case. The Park Rangers in and around Yosemite are the worst LEOs I've ever dealt with. I was pulled over for a routine traffic stop and they pulled 3 of us out of an old VW, we were all legit but they hasseled my buddy for having a nice green goretex jacket. They kept saying it was "park issue" well it was'nt. They thought they could bully him out of it but they did'nt.
 
OK - personal experience

This was (& hopefully still is) for Arches and
Monument Valley in Utah -
With any luck - true for other parks as well
but checking locally can't hurt.
Talked to the Sheriff in Moab and got the
name of the ranger in Arches who was most
familiar with the laws regarding firearms in
national parks (sorry - can't remember his name).
Stopped at the ranger station at Arches entrance
and asked to speak with the ranger.
Told the ranger that the firearms were
1) dissambled and in cases in the trunk &
2) the ammunition was in the passenger
'compartment' of the car.
He said that this approach met the letter as well
as the intent of the law.
We had no problem with this approach BUT -
in both Arches & Monument Valley one is never
really very far from one's vehicle if out of it at all
and there really isn't what one would call an
abundance of wildlife in either place !!!!!!
Other parks may (but shouldn't) have 'different'
rules and if I were going into an area where
I am 'no longer at the top of the food chain'
I would probably reconsider and use a
'different tactic' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Madkiwi,

Just don't go to Yosemite. And avoid all other national park areas and federal lands like the plague as much as possible. Drive around rather than through them whenever it can physically be done, even if it takes you some distance out of your way. Treat national parks, federal lands, and all government buildings as the same sort of hostile, enemy occupied territory that airports have been since the Seventies.

"The U.S. Constitution: Void Where Prohibited By Law."

Maimaktes
 
So it ain't the guns, it's where they get shot at or not shot at.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I figure that's part of the reason there are so many deer getting hit by cars. It's illegal to hunt from or along roadways so the deer hang out there. And then they get into the road and wreck my car. :cuss:
 
Maimaktes,

I can't avoid it. The only access to the condo is via Highway 41, which runs from Yosemite Valley to the South Entrance (Fish Camp/Wawona).

Anyway, I still need to know, under federal law, what I should do. Take the slide off the pistol? The law says I only have to put it in a locked container, the regulations as written say it needs to be disassembled as well.

I also see that you are supposed to declare posession to the ranger at the entrance. Oh, I can see it now- a JBT team pointing MP5s at us (fingers off the trigger, of course) while they take my vehicle apart.

This is nuts. Unreasonable search and seizure, self-incrimination, the whole ball of wax. Damned if you don't tell them, screwed if you do.

madkiwi
 
Re: traversing national monuments...

Was there an exemption for national parks in the federal peacable travel affirmative defense laws?

(You know the ones...legal where your trip starts and ends...)

If not....then unloaded, cased, and trunked oughta do you.

If anyone knows any good reason why not, I'd love to hear it.
 
Per the NRA-ILA "Federal Gun Laws" page here

If you are transporting firearms, you must notify the ranger or gate attendant of this fact on your arrival, and your firearm must be rendered "inoperable" before you enter the park. The National Park Service defines "inoperable" to mean unloaded, cased, broken down if possible, and out of sight. Individuals in possession of an operable firearm in a national park are subject to arrest.
Click to expand...

However the law as published on the nps.gov website does not mention the notification thing.

Is it any wonder I am confused. the NRA (who we all know is standing up for my rights:rolleyes: ) says I have to open myself up for discriminatory treatment, while the actual genuine NPS rules say nothing of the sort.:confused:

I do remember last time I drove through Yosemite (on my motorcycle in September) there was a sign saying all firearms must be declared.

madkiwi
 
Well, In Utah, you may be in for quite a wait to declare your firearms since most areas are rarely manned.

I have been to Yosemite..........and I will never go again. It should be illegal to enter UNARMED!

Here is a good rule. If you are in a red state, cased and locked is probably adequate. If you are in a blue state, move.
 
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