Keep guns stowed in national parks

Firearm regulations formulated during the Reagan era should be retained because they help keep visitors to America's national parks safe and protect wild animals from poachers.

The rules are simple enough: Rifles and handguns must be unloaded and stowed away in national parks. For 25 years these straightforward regulations have been administered by the National Park Service without notable controversy.An effort in the U.S. Senate to undo the rules failed, so senators wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne asking him to do it through the regulatory process. He answered in late February to say he had directed an assistant secretary to develop and propose new regulations by April 30.

The scent of an election issue makes the nose twitch, the way honey attracts a bear. The National Rifle Association has prodded the Bush administration to change the rules, and here is a classic topic to turn out a base of voters. Karl Rove lives.

No one is safe — humans or wildlife — with this proposed revision. Law-abiding citizens are not looking for another camper to deputize himself as an armed citizen peacekeeper. Liquor, guns and campgrounds — now there is a volatile combination.

Park rangers already have their hands full trying to thwart poaching on federal lands. The idea of a rifle-toting hiker in the backcountry of the national park only fuels confusion about intent.

The proposal being pitched to Kempthorne by the senators — and one that apparently resonated — is to match federal rules to the firearm regulations of the states where the parks are located. Resist temptation to invent a compromise. Unload and stow the weapons while on federal parkland.

The petitioning senators acknowledged the origins of the 1983 rules were very clear: "We certainly understand that these regulations were implemented in order to stop poaching and to enhance public safety."

Exactly, and that imperative is undiminished by the need for a campaign issue.