Pack Your Guns, We're Goin' to the Park ! ! ! !

Good grief, is there no end to the stupidity down there ? ! ?

From Congressional Quarterly on Thursday:

Senate Panel Votes to Permit National Park Visitors to Carry Guns

Sept. 11, 2008













With solid bipartisan support, a Senate panel approved legislation on Thursday to allow loaded guns in national parks.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved, 18-5, a draft bill by Sen. Jim DeMint , R-S.C. It would allow people to bring loaded guns into national parks and wildlife refuges unless state laws bar them from doing so. Park Service regulations now allow guns only if they are unloaded and stowed.

“The purpose of this bill is to protect innocent Americans from violent crime in national parks,” DeMint said.

Park advocacy groups immediately decried the move and warned it could be far more difficult for park rangers to stop poaching. “America’s national parks shouldn’t be made a political football in the gun debate,” said Bryan Faehner, associate director for park use at the National Parks Conservation Association.

The push to allow firearms in the parks has been a rallying point for the National Rifle Association. A non-controversial public lands measure was held up for months when Tom Coburn , R-Okla., unsuccessfully tried to bring up a floor amendment on the same topic.

'Ya know, I don't know what to say.

So I won't . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moved to Vancouver)