Apparently the people who administer Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky are upset because we legal gun carriers are clearly going to trap everyone in a cave and shoot them like ducks in a barrel:
Mammoth Cave has previously banned guns from the cave, saying it keeps everyone safe. McDougal says there aren’t many ways to escape once you’re inside on a cave tour.
Does McDougal really think the rule was preventing a mass cave slaughter before? Apparently in his world, mass killers were busy checking the Code of Federal Regulations to check first whether their gun possession would be legal before they go on a killing spree.
Either way, I have to accept that they might be a little challenged in the reading comprehension department, since they are waiting for “guidance from Washington on interpretation of a new law opening national parks and refuges to people with loaded guns.”  All the guidance one needs can be found in the Coburn Amendment itself. It’s one of the simplest laws you’ll ever read:
The Secretary of the Interior shall not promulgate or enforce any regulation that prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm including an assembled or functional firearm in any unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System if the individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm and the possession of the firearm is in compliance with the law of the State in which the unit of the National Park System or the National Wildlife Refuge System is located.
There’s your guidance. Guns are legal in Mammoth Cave according to Kentucky Law. Now quit your whining and deal with it.
Might be legal, but I damn sure wouldn’t want to do it. Loud noises in caves (usually kids with fireworks) have been cause enough for a cave in, and usually later when no one suspects. Note, I say caves, not reinforced mineshafts, before someone tries to point out explosives used in mining.
It’s a fair concern, but the guy who comes to shoot up a cave full of people isn’t going to be that concerned. Point being, if someone is in the cave firing, you’re already dealing with a life/death situation.
I was just there last month. There were no metal detectors, pat-downs, or anything of the sort. As you’ve pointed out, there is nothing to stop anybody from bringing a gun into the cave anyway.
They did have lockers at the entrance, but I’m not sure if it would be permissible (yet) to lock your gun up before entering.
Mammoth Cave is huge and was used to process gunpowder adn keep tuberculosis patients . No probability of cave ins.
However if the power went off is pitch black which can panic people. I do not expect an decent CCW person to lose it becasue of that and there is no reason to expect any lawful gun owner to abuse the right.
Unless the person is a reckless person and inclined to shoot at anything. This is another instance of having to trust the American citizen as our country is based on.
Basically NPS does not think Americans can be trusted with self rule of gun carry is a part of.
Nothing like publishing a plan of action.
How stupid!!