Everybody Run, the National Park Visitor's Got a Gun

The gun lobby has been quite busy these last few months stoking paranoia throughout the land, spreading fantasies that President Obama will take everyone's guns away. Meanwhile, they've also been pressuring Congress to take a truly stupid step - allowing people to carry guns, concealed or open, in America's national parks. The NRA sold the bill as a measure allowing park visitors to protect themselves against the marauding fiends who presumably rampage through our national parks with abandon.

Except they're not.

By any standard, America's national park system is one of the safest places to be in the country. According to the National Park Service, the FBI recorded 382 major crimes (i.e., murder, rape, robbery or aggravated assault) throughout the park system in 2007. With 275 million people visiting 34 million acres of federal parkland, that means you had a 0.000139% chance of being the victim of a violent crime.

By comparison, the state of South Dakota (population 800,000) recorded 1347 violent crimes, giving you a 0.17% chance of being a violent-crime victim there. So in other words, your chances of being a crime victim in South Dakota are one thousand, two hundred and eleven times greater than being a crime victim in a national park.

But that doesn't matter to the gun lobby. To the NRA, guns must be allowed anywhere at any time, consequences be damned. And there will be consequences. Imagine people getting into an argument over parking spaces, or camping sites, or anything else, and finding out the hard way that someone has both a .38-caliber pistol and an itchy trigger finger.

Another clue that the gun lobby might not have thought this one through is the existence of President's Park, a national park on the east coast. Steeped in history, the park is a focal point for news coverage, is visited by world leaders, and is admired by Americans of all ages.

President's Park, you see, is the White House. And somehow, I doubt the Secret Service would appreciate hordes of Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights by packing heat anywhere near the president.

This is a dumb idea, plain and simple. The amendment, sneaked into a bill reining in credit-card companies, was dutifully passed by Congress and sent to the White House. President Obama will probably sign the bill to achieve its major purpose, but Congress should remedy this nonsense at the first opportunity.