Politics

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Has National Park Gun Ban In His Crosshairs

Shenandoah National Park from Virginia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Republican Indiana Rep. Rudy Yakym introduced legislation Thursday to end a blanket ban on carrying firearms in National Park Service facilities, saying it will allow park rangers to manage the parks as opposed to policing law-abiding citizens.

Currently, while visitors are allowed to carry firearms on National Park lands in accordance with state law, they cannot carry the firearms into buildings, nor can they carry on land owned or managed by the Army Corps of Engineers. Yakym introduced the Federal Lands Lawful Carry Act, saying it was time to end those policies.

“We should push the legislation now because we should not wait for a court to resolve what my bill can fix outright,” Yakym told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If we can fix this permanently across the country now, we should do this now in the House and take action, as opposed to waiting for the courts to sort this out.”

The bill is supported by Gun Owners of America (GOA), the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). SAF and the Firearms Policy Coalition sued the Trump administration over the ban in March before filing an amended complaint in June.

“You cannot walk into a building, a federal building with a gun, even in a federal park,” Yakyn explained. “So what made the most sense is to say the fact that just simply say you should not have to check your Second Amendment right at the front door when you walk into a building on federal land.”

The ban on firearms in park buildings dates to 1988, when it was passed as part of the Undetectable Firearms Act, according to Outdoors Online.

“More than 300 million people visit our national parks each year, yet they’re barred from carrying firearms inside certain park buildings,” Yakym said in a release announcing the legislation. “Law-abiding Americans shouldn’t have to give up their right to self-defense just to enter a visitor center or obtain a permit. My bill fixes that.”

Yakym noted that in Indiana, someone could violate federal law while boating, simply because while firearms are allowed at Whitewater Memorial State Park, they are forbidden to have firearms at the neighboring Brookville Lake because the latter is on Army Corps of Engineers land.

“When you walk to the boat dock, it’s illegal to carry the gun. You committed a federal crime,” Yakym said. “And so we want to make sure that it’s just very consistent no matter where you’re at. If you’ve got the right to carry a gun, you can carry the gun.”

The introduction of the legislation comes less than a week after a Friday incident involving a bison tossing a 65-year-old grandfather eight feet into the air, causing multiple broken bones. Yakym, though, told the DCNF the legislation was not in response to incidents like that, which made headlines.

“What accelerated my timeline on the legislation is simply listening to Second Amendment advocates,” Yakym said when asked about the timing. “I’m a Second Amendment advocate and gun owner myself. I want to be able to own my gun and take a gun wherever I want to go, and law-abiding gun owners should not lose their Second Amendment rights the moment they walk through a federal building door.”

Yakym’s office confirmed to the DCNF that Republican Texas Rep. Pat Fallon was signing on as a lead-co-sponsor of the legislation.