PORT ANGELES — A federal law that takes effect Monday will allow visitors to carry loaded firearms into Olympic National Park and 371 other national parks and monuments across the nation.
At Olympic National Park, staff has been gearing up.
“We’ve known about this for a long time, so people have talking about it internally and getting ready,” said Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.
The law — passed by Congress in May as an amendment to a credit card reform bill — requires the National Park Service to adopt the same gun-carry laws that the host state permits.
Washington state allows firearms on its regular parks if the carrier has a concealed-weapons permit.
As of Monday, anyone with the proper paperwork can bring those guns to Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascades national parks.
It is still illegal to discharge a firearm in a national park.
National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said the Park Service has prepared for months for the new law.
“We will administer this law as we do all others — fairly and consistently,” Jarvis said in a prepared statement.
Olympic National Park is making new signs to reflect the new regulations. Beyond that, it’s business as usual.
“I personally haven’t taken any phone calls or questions,” Maynes said.
While it will be permissible to take a loaded weapon into the park, weapons will not be allowed at such federal facilities as the visitor centers at Port Angeles and Hurricane Ridge.
The park does not expect operations to change.
“We don’t really anticipate that, because the use of firearms is still prohibited,” Maynes said.
Restored Bush policy
The new law’s passage restored a George W. Bush administration policy that temporarily allowed loaded guns in early 2009, until U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly overturned it in March.
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., reintroduced the gun rule as an amendment to Credit CARD Act of 2009. The popular legislation imposes new restrictions on credit card companies.
“This amendment is about protecting every American’s Second Amendment rights,” Coburn said in a prepared statement.
“If an American citizen has a right to carry a firearm in their state, it makes no sense to treat them like a criminal if they pass through a national park while in possession of a firearm.
“Visitors to national parks also should have the right to defend themselves in accordance with the laws of their states,” he added.
Crime in parks?
“National parks, while still generally safe for visitors, have seen an increase in crime recently,” Coburn said.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, whose 6th Congressional District includes the North Olympic Peninsula and Olympic National Park, voted against the new law.
He said at the time that the low incidence of crime in national parks contradicts the argument that people need loaded firearms to be safe.
A Reagan-era ban on loaded guns was overturned in the final year of the George W. Bush administration.
The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees strongly opposed the change.
Bill Wade, chairman of the coalition’s executive council, said the new law could interfere with the tranquility of nature.
“People go to national parks to get away from things that they face in their everyday living, where they live and work,” he said.
“Now I think that social dynamic is really going to change.
“Most American visitors somehow think of the parks as being very safe, very secure, where you don’t have to worry about guns. Now you could see that guy with the rifle over his shoulder. The context is just wrong.”
Guns on nature hikes
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said: “Families should not have to stare down loaded AK-47’s on nature hikes.”
“It really is sad that we’ve become such a paranoid society that people want to take guns pretty much everywhere — including national parks,” he added.
The National Rifle Association spokeswoman Alexa Fritts said the law will decrease confusion about state guns laws and allow visitors to defend themselves.
“The chance is out there, and one attack on a person by another person or an animal is too many,” she said.
Maynes said Olympic National Park has no official position on the new rule.
“It’s a new regulation and we’re implementing it,” she said.
To view the state’s firearms laws, visit www.tiny.cc/SwWKJ.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
