The National Park Service (NPS) has extended the deadline to Aug. 8 for public comment on a controversial rule change that would allow licensed concealed carry within national parks.

Originally, the comment period was to have ended June 30, but under pressure from two anti-gun Democrats, Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, and Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, chair of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, the comment period was extended. The extension was sought because the lawmakers felt the original 60-day period was “inadequate.” Some gun activists believe they wanted the extension to allow more time for opponents of the measure to weigh in, as they are so far vastly outnumbered.

However, public comment appears so far to be running in the other direction. A sample of pro-gun sentiment can be found on the nationalparkstraveler.com website. The controversy has spawned heated debate, such as that which erupted in the pages of The Seattle Post-Intelligencer(P-I) last month when columnist Joel Connelly penned a blistering attack on the proposal.

Connelly’s column attacked the National Rifle Association and went on to note that park managers and others have blasted the idea, and he cited data that shows “that the chance of becoming a victim of violent crime in a national park is one in 708,333. You are more likely to get struck by lightning.”

However, earlier this year, Gun Week and The Colorado Springs Gazette viewed the data from a different perspective. In the years between 2002 and 2007, there were 63 homicides in national parks, 240 rapes or attempted rapes, 309 robberies, 37 kidnappings and 1,277 aggravated assaults, according to the same National Park Service statistics to which Connelly alluded.

Connelly’s column set off a firestorm of reaction in reader comments, and also got the attention of CCRKBA Legislative Director Joe Waldron, who chided Connelly for taking “hammer in hand…and hitting himself squarely on the thumb.”

Waldron wrote in a scathing rebuttal.
“... In the 1980s, the Department of the Interior banned unsecured firearm possession in National Parks, ostensibly to prevent poaching,” Waldron’s letter to The P-I editor said. “Criminal activity in parks, including horrendous murders in the Blue Ridge and Yosemite National Parks (not marauding wildlife), increased to the point where the Clinton administration started arming park rangers. Repealing the national park de facto gun ban will not threaten wildlife, it will not threaten law-abiding visitors to our parks. It will threaten criminals who have expanded their reach into our park system.”

Comments may be submitted on-line at: regulations.gov and enter the code 1024-AD70 in the space under “Comment and Submission.” Click on the topic headlined “General Regulations for Areas Administered by the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service” and then on “Send a Comment.”