How far will the National Rifle Association go to overthrow gun control measures? Apparently infiltrating groups who favor gun control isn't out of the question. Among the groups infiltrated? Apparently the National Parks Conservation Association.
Mother Jones magazine, in a story published Wednesday, reports that a woman known as Mary McFate has over the years worked undercover as an NRA mole who infiltrated gun control groups. Among the more recent targets was NPCA, which has been working for months against efforts by Interior Department officials to overturn gun regulations pertaining to weapons in the National Park System.
Under the current guidelines, weapons owned by licensed gun owners can be brought into the parks, but they have to be broken down and stored out of easy reach. Earlier this year, however, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed to replace that regulation with one that would allow park visitors to arm themselves around the clock if the laws of the state in which the park in question is found allowed.
What's not been answered is how rangers in park units that span multiple states -- such as Yellowstone, Death Valley, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Great Smoky Mountains -- would police gun laws if this proposal were embraced.
A source for the Mother Jones story, Barbara Hohlt, executive director of States United to Prevent Gun Violence, told the magazine that Ms. McFate's ears perked up when she heard about NPCA's opposition to the change.
McFate also took a keen interest in a gun matter currently under consideration by the Department of the Interior, Hohlt says. At the urging of the gun lobby, the agency has been mulling whether to change its regulations to allow people to carry loaded and concealed guns into national parks under certain circumstances. (At the moment, a gun carried into a national park must be unloaded and kept apart from ammunition.) The National Parks Conservation Association and current and former National Park Service officials have been fighting the proposed rule change. "When Mary heard about this," Hohlt recalls, "she immediately asked to be on the email list [of the opponents] and she also got on the phone calls. So she now knows the strategy of the people trying to fight this."
NPCA officials, understandably, are aghast at the possibility that their private deliberations have been overheard by a spy possibly working for the NRA. In a statement issued this afternoon the park advocacy group confirmed that Ms. McFate "has participated in multiple confidential conversations and email correspondence over the past few months about efforts to keep visitors and wildlife safe in our national parks."
Bryan Faehner, NPCA's legislation representative, adds that, "If the investigation by Mother Jones proves true, then the NRA will have effectively spied on our ongoing efforts to keep visitors and wildlife safe in our national parks. If true, this is a troubling display of the lengths to which the NRA will go to further its agenda."
Comments
Mark,
Adding a gun to the equation raises the stakes substantially.
Maybe if those ladies who were killed in Yosemite NAtional Park were allow to have a loaded gun in their posession they would still be alive???? (Ed: The murders referenced here did not take place in Yosemite National Park. The murdered women were Yosemite tourists who were killed near the park. For a relevant map, see this site.)
I'm not sure that I would necessarily agree that a gun has to raise the stakes, but you were describing difficulties with having to know the laws of both states. I was just pointing out that that is already an issue. You would have the same issue if someone were smoking a joint on a trail that crossed between two states. The ranger would have to have probable cause to suspect that the item being smoked was illegal in which ever state he was in.
Let's say for arguments sake that one state allows up to 3.5 ozs for personal consumption (I think that is or used to be Alaska's law) and in the other state you could get put in jail for 6 months for possession of a joint. Ignoring federal law (perhaps this wasn't a good example because there is applicable federal law - although I have no idea how it's Constitutionally justified), the ranger must determine what state he is in before knowing what action to take.
Can you provide a single incident where prohibiting the ownership/carry of fire arms produces a more peaceful society? Washington, DC, UK, etc.?
The topic of this post was about the supposed tactics the NRA is using to try to roll back the current NPS guidelines on carrying weapons in NPS units. Do we really need to re-hash all the same arguments again about whether the NPS has a right to have these guidelines in the first place and the dangers of allowing or not allowing guns in the parks?
On the topic of the NRA planting a mole into the NPCA, while this bothers me greatly, it doesn't shock me either. And I'm guessing that many associations that require the lobbying of Congress as well as fighting other groups in the mainstream media will use similar tactics to see what the "opposition" is planning. Unfortunately I wonder, in a situation like this, if the decisions will be made by who has the best lobbyists or who has the best organized grass-roots constituency. I wish it could be left up to the people, but it seems that's never the case these days.
The NRA has lost a lot of credibility over the years advocating gun as the ultimate freedom. Not so NRA. Not so. It continues.
Mookie, I agree with you. The NRA will milk the gun issue until your blue in the face...guns, bullets and profit! It's all about power and control. Whatever it takes win over an issue:lie, cheat, distort or give out misinformation, bad information or no information. These are the shrewd tactics of the NRA and these are not nice people were dealing with. Anyone who believes in these gun mongers that the National Parks will be safer, if we allow concealed hand guns to be implemented into law must be kidding themselves. Yes, we have extreme cases of sick violent crime in the National Parks but not at the wild level of hysteria that the NRA wants you to believe. It's all about right wing political football tactics (since it's election year) and it has nothing to do with bread and butter issues regarding the National Parks. It's a deliberate diversion tactic that separates us from the real true issues like: saving our natural heritage from the oil and cattle barons. It's all about rape and pillage of are natural resources for the multinational corporations and corrupt ideology.
There really is no rational discussing of this subject is there? Both sides are so polarized that any middle ground is unreachable. I love how both sides demonize the other. Well, the Supreme Court made their decision and self protection is a individual right not to be infringed upon by the government. Reasonable regulations are currently ok but will be contested in court. One day for good or ill the issue will be resolved within the constraints of our legal system but much like Roe V Wade will never be resolved in our society.