Loaded guns in our National Parks?  Now What?!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm not exactly having a good feeling about people having loaded guns in our National Parks.  I take my family there to relax, forget about the city life, and take in the beauty of our National treasures.  I don't take my family to the park to fear for one of them being shot in the night when they have to go to the bathroom and some crazy hick thinks someone or some animal is trying to rob him.

How the hell does legislation like this get through?  NRA?  Interest groups, etc?  I wouldn't be surprised something like this going into effect under Bush, but Obama?  How did this one slip by?  I'm an outdoorsman, a fisherman, a skiier, and hiker.  I love our wildlife and the serenity it provides.  I don't think this law does anything but permit gun loving hicks to bring their weapons into parks to be used.  It's not by any means  something they need to have.  We gotta overturn this one folks.  This new law is BS if you ask me!

The LA times reports:

The park service is restrained from taking a position on legislation, but an array of law enforcement groups and retired park employees oppose it.

Critics fear that looser rules on guns could encourage wildlife poaching and increase destruction of historic or cultural resources. Shooting cactuses, signs and structures is common on other federal lands.

Opponents say the law ratchets up the potential for violence in parks, where for seven consecutive years rangers have been the most assaulted federal law enforcement officers, according to data compiled by the park service.

Major crimes reported in 2008 were at the lowest level since at least 1995, according to park service statistics. There were 1,844 weapons-related offenses reported in national parks last year.

Lesser offenses are on the rise, however, including the common offense of car clouting: breaking into vehicles left in parking lots for long periods.

"What do we do when a person does the right thing, and leaves his gun locked in the car when he goes into the visitors' center and someone steals the gun?" said John Waterman, a ranger at Valley Forge National Historic Park.

Bill Wade, of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, worries about law-abiding gun owners who may not be accustomed to camping in wild places.

"The single biggest threat is the situation that's going to occur in campgrounds, where you have inexperienced people, who don't know much about parks, who are out of their element," Wade said. "You are sleeping under the trees and you hear a noise. You look out of the tent and see a shape and start firing.

"It changes the dynamic in parks. People go there to feel safe and secure, to get away from the stuff they face every day where they live."

So what do you think?  Should we sit idle and let our National Forests be taken over by a bunch of gun toting hicks or shall we preserve our parks and the safety of our parks by overturning this new law?