Looks like the National Association of Park Rangers is also going to file suit to keep the new rule from going into effect. I have to admit, I’m little miffed at the Bush Administration for not getting this rule change done sooner. I think the strategy of our opponents is to run the clock out, until they can deal with an administration who won’t fight that hard for the change. If it can get thrown out on a legal technicality, then that’s it. There will be no time or desire to rework a different rule. If the rule change gets reversed, Bush will still have taken media heat for the rule, but we won’t have gotten it. No one will be happy, except perhaps the Brady Campaign.
Category: Guns
Gun Murders and Gun Laws
SayUncle pointed out North Dakota had zero gun murders in 2008, despite being 44 out of 50 in the Brady Campaign rankings. Bruce looks at New Hampshire, and finds a similar story.
Is Minnesota Next?
Looks like there’s some murmuring in Minnesota of a lead ammunition ban for hunters, along the same lines as California’s ban.
Make Your Own Shooting Spots
Local NRA members are apparently teaming up with the U.S. Forest Service to clean up sections of National Forests which have been used for illegal dumps, in order to make room to shoot.
All It Takes in One (Armed) Person …
Animal Rights Dorks Vandalizing Duck Blinds
“Extend the circle of love to all creatures.” You know, except for duck hunters I guess. You know who else eat ducks? Foxes. You don’t see the animal rights loons spray painting foxes, do you?
Zootshooters
J.R. found some practical shooters that have a whole 1930s theme going.
S&W 637
I’d say “Nice Carry Gun,” but he lives in Wisconsin. Someday, Peter. Someday. You have to get rid of Doyle first though.
Remembering Chuck
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0297_ha8zXE[/youtube]
Time has posted fond farewells for 2008, and number 17 is Charlton Heston. However, the writer seems confused:
Offscreen, Heston was a figure of epic contradictions. In the ’60s he marched with Martin Luther King; in the ’90s he headed the National Rifle Association.
There’s nothing contradictory about civil rights work.
Brady Campaign Files Suit over National Park Issue
The Brady Campaign has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to enjoin the Department of Interior from changing its rules to allow concealed carry in National Parks.
The rule will allow guns in rural and urban national park areas around the country, from Wyoming’s Yellowstone and California’s Yosemite to Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, home of the Liberty Bell. The suit was filed on behalf of the Brady Campaign and its members, including school teachers in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas who are canceling or curtailing school trips to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. now that the Bush Administration will be allowing guns in these national park areas.
Carrying firearms is still prohibited on the National Mall and at Ellis Island, because the states they are in prohibit carrying of firearms. Hell, even Independence Hall in Philadelphia will still be off limits, because while Pennsylvania allows for licensed concealed carry, access to Independence National Historical Park is through a a federal facility, where guns are still illegal. This is fear mongering, pure and simple. As usual with the Brady folks, these claims are patently false.
UPDATE: Dave Hardy, who worked in the DOI Solicitor’s office as an attorney for a number of years, has some thoughts on this as well.