New Bush gun rule crashes into Parks, Forest Service staff assault trends

An 11th hour rule change in the waning days of the Bush Administration to allow visitors to carry loaded concealed weapons into national parks and wildlife refuges has generated tremendous hue and cry from environmentalists, park leaders and gun violence groups.

While speculation has been raised about the likelihood of increased poaching and visitor squabbles being settled with Smith & Wesson peacemakers, rolling back the 25-year-old regulation that required guns to be unloaded and stowed away puts federal workers at much higher risk than Bambi.

Arches National … oil and gas field?

Author and naturalist Edward Abbey didn’t even like people hanging out at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, when he was a seasonal ranger there in the late 1950s. One wonders how he’d feel about the place being overrun by oil and gas wells.