Twenty five years ago the Reagan administration enacted a federal law making it illegal to have loaded weapons in national parks. George W. Bush, in his waning days as president, has overturned that federal ban. The move shifts the gun law within national parks from the federal level to the individual states, thereby making it possible for loaded and concealed weapons to be carried in places like Yosemite National Park.
Gun advocates believe that it is their right to legally carry firearms wherever they are, including national parks such as Yosemite, and now in accordance with state laws, they will be able to do just that. The National Rifle Association supports the repealed law, suggesting that law-abiding citizens should be free to possess their weapons for personal protection against others who might endanger them. The gun advocates also cite protection against dangerous animals as added incentive to repeal the ban. They suggest that in places like Yosemite Valley – famous for being surrounded by El Capitan, Half-Dome, Bride Veil Falls, Yosemite Falls, and Glacier Point, where people congregate around the campsites and hotels of Curry Village, the black bears pose a threat to families as they rummage for food. Last year there were 500, and this year 400, incidents of black bears damaging visitors’ automobiles or campsite equipment in Yosemite Valley while foraging for food. While there have been occasional bear attacks, the number of those attacks is very small, with no human ever having been killed by a black bear in Yosemite National Park, or throughout the state of California.
The Coalition of National Park Retirees states that every living former national park service director stands opposed to the newly overturned law and the association believes that repealing the law and allowing firearms into national parks such as Yosemite National Park), places the parks’ wildlife, employees and visitors at increased risk, adding that poaching, and human endangerment will become a byproducts of the law change. Yosemite National Park itself is not taking any public stance on the matter, though a spokesman for the park did suggest that national parks are inherently very safe places. As the United States welcomes a new year and with it, a new president, there is the possibility that Barack Obama could just as easily overturn Bush’s last minute change to the long-standing law.
