Brady Campaign Files Suit over National Park Issue

The Brady Campaign has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to enjoin the Department of Interior from changing its rules to allow concealed carry in National Parks.

The rule will allow guns in rural and urban national park areas around the country, from Wyoming’s Yellowstone and California’s Yosemite to Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, home of the Liberty Bell. The suit was filed on behalf of the Brady Campaign and its members, including school teachers in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas who are canceling or curtailing school trips to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. now that the Bush Administration will be allowing guns in these national park areas.

Carrying firearms is still prohibited on the National Mall and at Ellis Island, because the states they are in prohibit carrying of firearms.  Hell, even Independence Hall in Philadelphia will still be off limits, because while Pennsylvania allows for licensed concealed carry, access to Independence National Historical Park is through a a federal facility, where guns are still illegal.  This is fear mongering, pure and simple.  As usual with the Brady folks, these claims are patently false.

UPDATE: Dave Hardy, who worked in the DOI Solicitor’s office as an attorney for a number of years, has some thoughts on this as well.