Stop Treating CHL Holders as Potential Criminals
As I’ve noted in several columns on the OFCC website, gun control advocates have been screeching about last month’s rule change by the Department of the Interior that lifted the total ban on firearms in National Parks and Wildlife Refuges and instead specified that they follow the laws of the state in which it is located. If state law allows concealed handgun license holders to carry a firearm for personal protection, then it is allowed in National Parks; which, incidentally, is the same it has always been for National Forests.
Today, I came across an article written by anti-gun extremist and U.S. Senator from California Dianne Feinstein that just got under my skin.
There are nine facilities in Ohio operated by the National Parks Service: Cuyahoga Valley National Park, David Berger National Memorial, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, First Ladies National Historic Site, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, James A Garfield National Historic Site, North Country National Scenic Trail, Perry’s Victory & International Peace Memorial, and William Howard Taft National Historic Site.
Sen. Feinstein would have you believe that now that the DOI has enacted the rule change that these will now become bastions of criminal activity courtesy of CHL holders. She argues that tourists will soon be assailed by stray bullets, though fails to note why this is not currently the case in National Forests or in any of Ohio’s State Parks, which currently do allow CHL holders to be armed.
She claims that poaching will increase, as if either an illegal poacher will jump through all the hoops required to obtain a CHL, or that the mere presence of a firearm will cause a previously law abiding citizen to go crazy with bloodlust and be unable to resist an illegal hunt. Again, she fails to explain why this hasn’t happened in State Parks, local parks, National Forests, or any other public lands.
These extremists are the only ones who think that every gun owner is a criminal waiting to happen. Their unfounded paranoia runs rampant through the newspaper headlines whenever a gun control law is defeated and the dire predictions of lawlessness and blood in the streets ring out from the hilltops. Of course, nothing ever happens because concealed carry licensees are one of the most law abiding segments of society.
How many times can the anti-gunners like Sen. Feinstein cry wolf before everyone just starts to tune them out? Not soon enough for me.
By: Daniel White - Examiner.com
