With wire and staff reports

KALISPELL, Mont. -- A controversial plan that would allow tourists to carry loaded guns in national parks is on hold, as pressure from critics has forced an extension of the public comment period through Aug. 8.

Floated first by Congress and later considered by the White House, the plan would remove the current rule stating guns are allowed, but they must be properly stowed.

The new proposal would replace the existing policy with a wide range of rules.

It was to reach decision makers early this summer, following public comment.

But on June 26, Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., wrote Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne requesting an extension.

Their letter stressed that the "department's proposal is ardently opposed by current and former park ranger professionals who have countless years of experience in park management and resource protection."

They also wrote that the public comment extension was necessary because of recent Supreme Court rulings on gun regulation.

Critics including the National Parks Conservation Association, the Association of National Park Rangers, the U.S. Park Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

They have argued allowing guns in parks will increase violent encounters between visitors and will lead to additional wildlife poaching. Tourists scared by a noise in the night, critic argue, might be compelled to open fire in crowded campgrounds.

They also have questioned how the move might affect international tourism at what are now considered "family friendly" national parks.

In April, seven former directors of the National Park Service wrote Kempthorne in opposition to the change. They noted "in all our years with the National Park Service, we experienced very few instances in which this (current) limited regulation created confusion or resistance. There is no evidence that any potential problems that one can imagine arising from the existing regulations might overwhelm the good they are known to do."

But the National Rifle Association, which helped write the new plan, and other proponents say citizens must be allowed to carry guns for their own safety. They also argue the right on constitutional grounds.

In announcing the proposal now under review, Kempthorne said the new rules would take into account recent changes to laws governing guns in federal buildings, as well as gun laws in individual states.

It would, he said, preserve the "values of our public lands, including the safety and enjoyment of all visitors, while enhancing local control and respecting an individual's Second Amendment right to bear arms."

The current regulations date to the 1930s, and were last updated during the Reagan administration.

Among those in Congress who initially backed the proposed changes were Montana's top Democrats, Sen. Max Baucus and Sen. Jon Tester, both of whom signed a letter asking for consideration of the rule change.

The issue of guns in national parks arose earlier this year in Wyoming when Chief U.S. District Judge William Downes sentenced a Montana man to four years federal imprisonment for being a felon in possession of a firearm and poaching a bull elk in Gallatin County, Mont., and dragging the head to his pickup inside Yellowstone National Park.

The federal judicial district of Wyoming includes all of Yellowstone National Park, including park land in Idaho and Montana.

"You took a magnificent bull elk in a United States park, then engaged in acts to cover up your crime," Downes said before sentencing Michael David Belderrain.

"Your case represents a classic public policy answer to the question: 'Why do we not want to have people with indiscriminate access to firearms in a national park?'

"And your crime answers that question," he said. "We don't."

Belderrain has filed an appeal with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

http://www.trib.com/articles/2008/07/13/news/wyoming/1e4d35eb14ac27378725748500095df4.txt