No Firearms in Natl Parks?

S

STRIDER

New member
I recently visited Yellowstone National Park. Before entering the toll area there was a large sign stating "No firearms allowed, loaded or assembled"

What is up with this? Is this for real? Under what authority? Someone please shed some light on this.
 
Strider:

Back in the 70s took my wife and two boys on a pickup camper trip to Shasta State Park in Northern Montana, just a few miles from Canada. It too had the large sign that said no firearms allowed by order of the guberment. The first evening at our campsite an old ranger greeted us and warned us about the Grizzly bears around the lake and our area, to leave no food stuffs outside. My little son pipes up...my dad has a gun, he'll protect us from the bears. Well...my heart did a flip flop in my chest...I could see the goon squad coming to haul me away...I told the ranger that is was just a little 32 acp and was not loaded at the time, and was for our protection while traveling from the west coast. The old guy was really great, he said not to worry I understand...just keep it in the truck and we'll forget about it. I doubt there is any like that old gentlemen working these parks today, but I could be wrong.

Jim
 
This is true of National Parks. I was at the Abe Lincoln Birthplace National Park today.(Hodgensville , KY) I did not see a large sign, but it was posted on a sheet of regulations at the visitor's center. Admittedly, I had my K40 under my untucked shirt. I was given a short paranoid head rush when a ranger in the center approached me and said" excuse me sir, but you are not allowed TO CARRY....that open bottle of water in here. Please put the cap on it until you go back outside." The words "to carry" put me on a overly-conscientious state for a minute. I understand that it is a felony.
 
I no longer care. I am a felon so many times over (JUST for exercising my God-given right) that if busted, I'd probably NEVER see daylight again.

Screw 'em. (And Satanta, I pirated your little icon, finger.gif. Just hadda have it...)
 
Back in the early seventies my wife and I used to do a lot of backpacking in the Sierras, particularly in Yosemite. No firearms were allowed even then. But I always packed my Series 70 Government Model 1911 and two full magazines. "Don't ask, don't tell," as the saying goes. The weapon wasn't to be used unless a dire emergency arose. We had many encounters with bears, black bears mostly. As all the backpacking literature suggests, we would put all our food except for the current meal in a bag and suspend it from a tree when we camped . Never had a problem. The gun wasn't really for the four legged friends of the forest; it was for the two legged goof balls, ding dongs, and wierdos that sometimes plied those trails. Fortunately, I never had to use it. I just took it out when we retired to our tent and put a magazine in, racked the slide, put the safety on, and kept it right next to me (Condition One). In the morning I would clear the weapon and return it to my pack until the next camp.

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Safe shooting - PKAY
 
Regulations posted in the Yellowstone literature state that firearms are permitted when unloaded, cased, and stored seperately from the ammo.
 
Signs at entrances to Big Bend National Park, Texas, tell you not to SHOOT fireams or have fireworks or fires in unapproved locations. Both my sons commented on the realisic atttude of whoever put up the signs.

It is a LONG ways from any lodging place to park headquarters(Guage Hotel, Marathon? 90 miles??) A little closer from Study Butte. But is it a big park and many vacationers want to enter from one end, spend time there, and exit other side. Or, perhaps it is just so remote a location it would be unrealistic to think folks would voluntarily comply with some silly rule to disarm. Lions and bears and bandits, oh my!

And, oh, yeah, there's no nonsense about disassembled or unloaded, ether.

Art--Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. I haven't been to BBNP in a couple of years.

RR

PS-- THIS is the completed message. Sorry about multiple posts.

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---The Second Amendment ensures the rest of the Bill of Rights---

[This message has been edited by Rocky Road (edited July 09, 2000).]
 
Geez, RR, we get the point! :D

In FL, it's a misdemeanor to carry in a national park. Must be a federal thing...
 
Strider,
I am going to assume you were concerened because you wanted to carry in the park. Let me just advise that before you carry anywhere you should first be concerned about what the Federal and state laws allow. Then, if you decide to carry anyway as I do, at least you know what your up against if you draw your weapon for whatever reason.

It is Federal Law that you can't carry a loaded gun in a national park.

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"It is easier to get out of jail then it is a morgue"
Live long and defend yourself!
John 3:16
NRA lifer
GOA
GSSF
KABA
 
When I ever go to Denali, I always have my 44 somewhere close at hand. Just too many of those little brown fuzzy critters in the area.
 
Well, I've told in some detail my story about being detained by two rangers in the Blue Ridge parkway after I answered affirmative to
a question about whether I had a gun in my cycle bags. (Unloaded, cased, ammo separate).

OTOH, I once completely forgot about my .357 on my hip when I got to the entrance of a national park in Utah. The ranger asked me to unload it and put it in my bag. Another time, when visiting Bryce Canyon, I knew I was going to take a gasping-for-breath hike down into the canyon, so I went to the ranger station and asked if they would lock the gun up for me until I was ready to leave the park. Very considerate, and no problems.

Dick
Want to send Bush a message? Sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/monk/petition.html and forward the link to every gun owner you know.
 
The National Park Service would much rather that a grizzly bear killed you than that you violated the civil rights of the attacking bear by shooting it.
 
We may be getting a little off track here, but that's OK too. Having a gun in your vehicle or on your person is most likely for a two legged preditor...not bears. The BG is far worst menace than the bruin...but then I've never had the experience of a Grizzly knawing on my neck bone either. Doubt that the average gun toter could do much against a Griz with a pistol. Most of us would probably crap our britches...that in its self
should drive yoggy away.
 
I've actually been looking at a Ruger Super Redhawk in .45LC for just such backpacking excursions.

Gonna make me a little pouch on my pack to hold it for me so it's there when I need it.

The good job my parents did is going to prohibit me from commenting in this forum on the people who come up with such laws.
 
If you ever take the train to the rim of The Grand Canyon you will have along with you on the train fellas dressed up as cowboys . They mingle with and talk to the passengers . They are there to fend off the "robbers" that attack the train on the way back . They all carry nice weaponry which appear very SASS legal . True to the times portrayed . Upon arriving at the entrance to the park the guns are locked up and they go "naked" while at the rim . After they leave the park they arm themselves to prepare for the "onslought" of desperados that will wreak havoc and be a general danger to life and limb of all those poor souls on the train .
Looks like a fun job . Wonder what it pays .

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TOM
SASS AMERICAN LEGION NRA
 
Para...wonder what they'd do if the desperados attacked and someone pulled an SKS out of a bag and start 'defending' the innocents? :D
 
Rocky Road: Things may have changed in BBNP, but so far as I know the deal is "No Display" of any firearms. Apparently, pragmatism rules.

As always, "Don't ask, don't tell" is the safest way to go; if asked, lie like a dawg!

Were I asked about a firearm, my pre-planned reaction is "Huh? Uh-uh." while giving the "trout look". The trout look consists of wide eyes, mouth hangin open a bit, and a bit of a general slump in the body. It implies I'm just dumber'n dirt, and totally harmless.

If you can make an authority figure think he's smarter than you are, you usually win.

:), Art
 
We live next to the "forestry reserve" that borders one of the largest of the Canadian National Parks. Spend alot of time on horse back trips that sometimes cause us to cross the line into the park. In the forestry its "loaded and locked" and in the park its "unloaded and hope" (hope you dont run into a Park Warden) cause as soon as the Warden sees a firearm, its check it out and explain time. If you were to shoot a bear, exspecially a Grizzly, it better have a dead family member in its mouth.

WCG
 
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