National Park Carry FAQ

I don't know. It is partly a matter of cost, too. Do you have flood insurance, for example?

Now referring to Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park, I'd think that many users of SNP think of it as much more than a road. And I didn't know that the Blue Ridge Parkway was a national park.

The odds I mention are not the odds for one day or one year but the total for (roughly) 25 years. For homicides, the odds in one year, if the numbers quoted above are accurate, your odds of being a homicide victim in a national park are one in 55,000,000, or over 25 years, one in 2.2 million. But since my vists to any national park from now on will probably be no more than about 20 in total, probably, my chances of be injured another way, probably by just falling down, are infintesimally greater, though not great, given my own experiences.

I'm still interesting in hearing about the first bear shot in SNP or even a coyote, which I understand now infests the park.
 
I didn't know that the Blue Ridge Parkway was a national park
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It is, and around here it cuts alot of miles off alot of folks daily drive when it's open. Me included. With some older grandfathered communities such as Love, VA...it is the only access to the state of Virginia and elsewhere, as sections of state roads were incorporated into the Parkway itself during it's construction. It is a very narrow strip of ground running lengthways thru National Forest land. http://www.nps.gov/blri/index.htm

Honestly...I'm a little bored with being profiled as a concealed weapons permit holder and having my vehicle searched extensively, to or from work 2 or 3 times a year, going on 10 years now, to the point of avoiding the road as a whole even though the gas savings alone is a 2-3 hundred bucks a month depending on the price of petrol. They do not like firearms in their park, and it becomes apparent if your D.L. check comes back with a CCW during a routine stop or a roadblock. Other hand, if you do happen to have a lawfully cased, incapacitated, and unloaded firearm somewhere in the vehicle's storage area, you may feel a duty to inform about your CCW permit, and they will of course...doublecheck and triplecheck. It's a catch-22 either way and if you and your vehicle become known, it just becomes something else altogether that really isn't worthy of discussion here.

Am very glad this has been resolved once again, and in a more permanent way, now if the snow on the road would only melt.:) I wonder what the rampant shooting stats are from the short period this was allowed last year. Likely nonexistant, despite any alarmist views.
 
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I keep wondering when I read threads like this (but remember, I do like guns and have a boxful) if people are actually more likely to carry a gun in a park, if they can, because they know more people will be carrying guns now. Now that's a Catch-22. Many people, though not myself particularly, may think that the parks where guns are allowed will be more dangerous because some people will presumably be armed, even though it be legal. But no doubt as many people are injured by legal fireworks as by illegal fireworks.

I think gun people, if I can use that expression, have an image problem. I am not referring to those who lobby for more liberal (!) gun laws or those who write letters to the editor or those going to the range on weekends, at least not all of them. I am referring to the image of a redneck (or Redneck) driving an old pickup with a rack and who is anything but civil or literate. We all know, just from reading this forum, that is a false image, mostly, and judging from some of the threads, some individuals here are worldly, knowledgeable, and well read. But the image persists, sometimes with justification. I myself have a Southern hillbilly accent that really only comes out when I speak to people at home but it's there and it's homegrown. But for those who claim that an armed society is a polite society, I've had too many experiences with people who were agressive, rude, vulgar, and anything but polite. Hardly everyone I know who is either armed or "into guns" has been like that but you understand what I'm saying and I make no apologies. So, right or wrong, some might think that sort of thing will be a problem in the parks. I just don't know, though I have no special worries about any problems developing beyond what there is already, none of which really has anything to do with guns. I also realize there are claims that some illegal activities go on in the backwoods in some parks and those engaged in said activities are armed and dangerous. Perhaps so, only that's outside of my experiences.

And I still want to know who will shoot the first bear. It won't be soon, at least in Shenandoah, because they're snowed in for the next two weeks and Skyline Drive is closed.
 
BlueTrain, I'm not sure I understand what you are saying... Are you saying you do think park carry should be okay, that it shouldn't be okay, or that you really aren't sure?

I can see how people will feel that it isn't needed. I mean, I go to Great Falls Park all the time, and I have never even considered the fact that something bad might happen there. But the perception that nothing bad will ever happen is no reason to put extra constraints on something that is otherwise already legal everywhere else. Unless someone can articulate a valid reason why you shouldn't be allowed to carry, and explain why that reason is more important than all the positives that come with carrying, then there is no reason to limit the ability to carry. Fact should beat perception every time...
Reminds me of a professor that told me no one needs an assault rifle. I asked him why they should be illegal if a reported 2% of crime happens with assault weapons, and his only answer was that we should get rid of them if it saves even one life... But what about all the lives that are saved with assault weapons?

I guess the point I'm driving at, is that unless someone can come up with a better reason for not allowing carry than just "someone might shoot a bear" (which is a valid concern), there is no reason not to allow carry because all the other points are just based on erroneous or irrelevant perception. The inbred redneck image that other people might have of us is totally irrelevant to what laws we should or shouldn't have in place...
 
I apologize for the rambling in my previous post but these things are written on the fly, so to speak, and I'm writing things just as they come out.

I was attempting not to say that would make any difference, though it may not have come out that way. I really think it will make no difference for anyone, though there will be plenty of people on both side who will make contrary claims. Just as those who will say that having more guns is bound to make everything more dangerous (anywhere, not just in parks), there are those, just as you just did, who will claim there are all sorts of positive reasons to have a gun, if for no other reason, just because you have a right to have one, which is really a neutral reason rather than a positive one. And in spite of my asking, mostly in jest, about when the first bear will be shot, I seriously doubt if many people are worried about the bears, I mean of those who would rather not there be guns in the park.

I think you missed my point about the rednecks (and I didn't say inbred!). My point was, in a rambling way, was that people's perceptions of gun owners is not positive and not even neutral, at least among those who do not own guns and perhaps mostly for that reason, there are a lot of gun laws, like it or not. No, it isn't fair and it might be totally ineffective but you could say that about a lot of laws, some of which a lot of conservative people support very strongly. So to put it another people, a lot of people aren't so afraid of people so much as they are afraid of certain people with guns. But that argument is used here to have guns in the first place. It become circular and with both sides using the same reason to do opposite things.
 
I think I see what you are driving at...
But its my opinion that unless there is a valid reason not to be able to carry someplace, there is no reason you shouldn't.
Any reasons to carry in a park are pretty much moot...

And I wasn't trying to argue against anything that you said, I was just confused as to what you were trying to say...

I kind of see what you mean about it being a circular argument, but it kind isnt in the sense that one people see all people with guns as bad, and some see only the bad guys with guns as bad. From there its merely a problem with perception...
 
Yes, it is a problem with perception and everyone has that problem. But some folks see anyone with a gun as a bad guy, and perhaps for some people, that includes policemen.
 
I have a neighbor, DEATHLY afraid of my dog, TERRIFIED of the dog. Phobia hysteria.
I walk my dog, and I used to take a wide route around him if we passed during the walk. We had some words over the matter. I tried to scold the dog if it let out a bark while it's tail is wagging wildly. Dog is an overt powderpuff. I soon noticed that no matter how wide a path I took, this neighbor is still horrified to the point of reminding me across the road, how afraid he is of dogs. It is actually something to see and for a time I felt bad about these exchanges which obviously work him up. I'm sorry, sorry...I apologize, sorry, smack and scold the dog to make her tail stop wagging.

I eventually realized that since I have control of the dog, and the dog doesn't bite, that the fear this man feels, is his problem. Now, after trying to be accomodating, and seeing no change...I just continue on my straight-line walk and if he can't check his hysterics to pass by the dog on the road or sidewalk, he needs turn 180 and run, or cross the street and maybe step off deep into the yard over there, to avoid me and my dog at whatever his required distance might be.

That's also what I think about this legislation which allows concealed permitted firearms in parks. If people don't like them, if folks are afraid for this, that, or some other reason, they should stay far away from parks and maybe write thier representatives and express some fears.
 
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alloy said:
That's also what I think about this legislation which allows concealed permitted firearms in parks
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I would like to point out that the new legislation has nothing to do with concealed carry or concealed carry permits. It is a pet peeve of mine when the media tries to make it sound like there is something in the legislation that isn't there, so I am sorry, but I would just like to point that out.
 
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Given all the threads about dogs, dangerous or otherwise, on this forum, I'm not sure that is a particularly useful comparison. Some folks carry guns specifically because they're deathly afraid of dogs, and no doubt some will claim they will be carrying a gun when they visit parks because of all the feral dogs running around.
 
But you do bring up a good point, alloy. What if someone was afraid of Toyota's because of, well, the thing with Toyota's right now. Would we be willing to say, well, OK, my Toyota "terrifies" you so I will keep my Toyota in the garage...

It is another pet peeve of mine when some supportors of the RKBA turn around and say we should hide our guns and carry them concealed out of consideration for those that don't like them. The fact is that no matter what we do, no matter what concessions and compromises we make, the fact is there are those people who just don't want me or anyone else to carry a gun, period. Hiding our guns away from them is not going to change that.

And by hiding our guns away we are losing opportunities to show the fence sitters, the undecided, those people that are still reachable, that is just perfectly normal and acceptable for an American to have the means available to themselves to protect themselves from violent crimes. I hear the argument that open carry "shoves it in peoples' faces." Well, the anti-s are shoving their propaganda in peoples faces. How is hiding our guns away from exposure to anybody and everybody going to do anything to counter the anti-s "in your face" efforts?

For the record, I have never shoved a gun in anyone's face. I have simply worn it in a holster on my belt.
 
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