The tragic Mount Rainier National Park shooting death of Ranger Margaret Anderson at the hands of Benjamin Colton Barnes is being blamed on the law Congress passed in 2010 that allows people to take loaded weapons into national parks so long as the carrier is in compliance with state concealed weapons carry laws. The gun control crowd is calling for repeal of the law, citing Ranger Anderson’s death as the need for Congress to revisit the law.
My heart goes out to Ranger Anderson’s loved ones and her fellow park rangers. Her husband is also a MRNP ranger. But Anderson’s death has absolutely nothing to do with the law permitting people to take loaded weapons into our national parks. Calling for the repeal of the law on account of her death is sort of a cheap shot by the anti-gunners.
The only bright spot in this dark and dreary picture is the fact that Barnes froze to death in the icy waters of a MRNP creek. Now Anderson’s family will be spared the agony of sitting through a lengthy trial listening to his lawyers and their expert witnesses bullshit a jury about how Barnes got all fucked up in the Iraqi war and by a troubled childhood.
According to his family members, Barnes suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following his deployment to Iraq in 2007-2008. Whether that’s true or not, a law prohibiting loaded firearms in our national parks would not have prevented Barnes from taking his arsenal into MRNP.
No law will ever prevent lawbreakers or the mentally deranged from carrying loaded firearms anywhere. Repeal of the law allowing people to take loaded weapons into our national parks will only hurt law abiding citizens, like those of Texas and other states, who have obtained concealed weapons carry permits. It is the pinnacle of idiocy to punish law abiding citizens for the acts of criminals and the mentally deranged.
1 comment:
Criminals are called criminals because they do illegal stuff. So-called gun control laws only inhibit honest people from being able to defend themselves.
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