Desecrates peace, serenity of wilderness
I get it that the “adjustment” in federal gun laws to allow carrying loaded weapons into national parks was passed to make the law consistent across the land [“Federal law allows visitors to carry guns in national parks,” News, Feb. 22]. And I get it that most people who might bring guns won’t bring them. But a few people will brandish them just to make a statement.
I know that there is a powerful gun lobby and that the vast majority of legal gun owners are trained and responsible citizens. But I also know that a law prohibiting loaded weapons would not prevent punks and psychotics from packing one in Cougar Rock Campground at Mount Rainier.
What I don’t get is the “why.” Why the need to carry at Paradise? What’s the reason for a loaded pistol in the Hoh River Campground? My wife and I have camped in these places for more than 40 years and never have we witnessed a situation where a weapon was even remotely needed.
But what I do get is that a Colt .357-caliber Magnum beside the coffee pot in the next campsite at White River will alarm me and my family. Our wilderness experience will be ruined by anxiety and concern that the people next to us are armed. Seeing a hiker with a holstered sidearm on the trail to Panorama Point ruins the environment that we went to Mount Rainier to experience.
Guns are city concerns and have no place in the pristine wilderness that the national parks were established to preserve. I am not happy about this last refuge of peace, solitude and safety being violated by the presence of firearms and it seems to me that the national parks ought to be the place where citizens can go and be free of the worry of loaded weapons.
— Paul Heins, Redmond