Outgoing Seantor George Allen has introduced Legislation to allow the carry of concealed weapons in National Parks. The usual suspects (NYT, Brady Bunch, etc.) are up in arms that anyone would feel so unsafe as to want to carry a gun into the pristine wilderness. They are ignoring incidents suck as this one from Hawaii in 1999, this National Geographic report on Organ Pipe National Monument, or this report listing the 10 most dangerous National Parks.

Two legged critters aren’t the only threat in the wilderness areas, bear attacks have resulted in multiple deaths in recent years. Even so called experts are not safe, as the death of Timothy Treadwell so clearly demonstrated.

National Parks are located within the boundaries of states, and citizens of most of those states can legally carry concealed weapons when licensed to do so. There is no reason for their rights to be suspended at the border of the park. Just as with the ‘Gun Free School Zone’, having a gun free Park creates multiple targets of opportunity for criminals. Instead of asking why a visitor ‘needs’ a gun, they should be asking why their rights stop at the entrance station.

SayUncle and Alphecca are reporting that the Brady Bunch aren’t quite as confident of their gun-grabbing plans as they were a few weeks ago. On the Federal level this may be true, with President Bush in office there is little chance of them re-enacting their Evil Black Rifle ban in the next two years. They may just lay low, regain the White House and then bring it up, along with all their other hair-brained schemes to prevent criminals from being criminals.

Plaintiff in Dallas Federal Lawsuit Says U.S. Gun Control Laws Unconstitutional

U.S. Citizens Overseas Unfairly Restricted from Gun Ownership, Suit Says

11/15/2006 12:20:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation, 425-454-7012, Bill Mateja of Fish & Richardson P.C., 214-747-5070, or Alan Gura of Gura & Possessky PLLC, 703-835-9085

DALLAS, Nov. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ — A United States citizen who now lives in Great Britain has joined with the country’s leading gun owner rights organization in a federal lawsuit that says nonresident citizens are unfairly being targeted by existing laws that restrict gun ownership to those who live in the U.S.

Attorneys William B. Mateja, a principal in the Dallas and Washington, D.C., offices of Fish & Richardson P.C., and Alan Gura of Alexandria, Va.’s Gura & Possessky PLLC, filed the federal claim today on behalf of London, England, resident Maxwell Hodgkins and the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation.

Hodgkins, a 31-year-old real estate broker, is asking for a legal injunction that would prohibit federal officials from enforcing several “vague and ambiguous” gun control statutes. A Dallas native, Hodgkins is an avid gun collector and sportsman who legally owns and stores firearms in the U.S. and holds related permits for weapons possession and concealment.

Mateja previously served in the current Bush Administration as senior counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General. Among other duties, he oversaw the Justice Department’s violent crime efforts, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and President Bush’s Project Safe Neighborhood. Prior to that, he served as lead counsel in the notable Second Amendment case U.S. v. Timothy Joe Emerson.

The statutes in question ban the receipt, sale and purchase of firearms by U.S. citizens who claim legal residency outside the U.S. Expatriates cannot buy guns, and while they can receive guns for “lawful sporting purposes,” they cannot do so for lawful self-defense while visiting the U.S. The suit claims that these laws violate the Second and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Although Hodgkins has not been arrested or prosecuted, his attorneys say he could face federal charges should he attempt to access his guns in the U.S.

“These laws serve no useful purpose,” says Gura. “If Mr. Hodgkins may safely have a gun for target practice or hunting, he can certainly have a gun for other lawful purposes.”

Alan Gottlieb, founder and vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, says: “The firearms rights of American citizens do not become null and void simply because an individual lives in another country. There is no public safety rationale for laws or regulations that prohibit law-abiding citizens from exercising their rights while they are on American soil. We cannot allow a legal environment to exist where the exercise of a civil right by an American citizen anywhere in the United States is conditional to that person’s country of residence.”

I’ve been hearing comments that the Democrats are going to be keeping a low profile where gun-control is concerned. That since they didn’t raise it as an issue during the campaign that its not going to be on their agenda in Congress. Fat Chance! Have people forgotten that this is the part that hides its true color until they get into power? Here’s just a single snip from a NYT article -

“It’s not just committees — our influence within the House Democratic caucus will grow enormously,” Mr. Rangel said in an interview.

To that end, he sketched out an expansive federal agenda: Teaming up with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on gun control, passing new tax incentives for urban job programs, and redirecting federal money to New York in return for the outsize tax collections that the federal government makes here.

You can be darned sure that this is just the start.

We conservatives were handed our hats last night. Commentators are trying to make the best of it, but the people are going to get what they want. Its time for us to get to work. There are going to be numerous anti-gun bills hitting Congress this next session and we need to work together to defeat them. We can probably count on Pres. Bush for a veto, but I wouldn’t put all my eggs in that basket.

The first thing we can do is fund our pro-gun groups. I f you don’t belong, join. If you belong send more money, buy a life membership, get your friends to join. I recently observed that as gun owners we spend thousands a year on guns and ammo but its like pulling short hairs to get us to donate to a most worth cause. Now is the time to donate a month’s ammo budget to the NRA, the SAF, CCRKBA, JPFO, etc. We have weathered these kinds of odds before, and we will do it again, but its going to take work — not sitting on our asses and whining, or hunkering down and coating our guns with cosmoline.