imported post
contact Nat'l Park Service again - with link
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Van Cleave
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:56 AM
Subject: VA-ALERT: National Parks playing games
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Let the games begin.
The Department of the Interior has extended the comment period on
allowing lawful carry of firearms in National Parks until August 8th
(it was supposed to end on June 30th).
Why?
Because pro-gun comments have dwarfed the anti-liberty crowd and there
are some, including some Congressmen, who don't like that.
The delay allows the dark side to organize against us.
But they underestimate gun owners. We will NOT give in! Instead we
will use the delay to continue pounding for carry in National Parks.
--
ACTION ITEM
Spread this alert item on the Internet far and wide so we can get more
and more gun owners to send in their comments. Send this to friends,
family, coworkers.
If we do that and drive our numbers up, we can continue to bury the
other side with pro-liberty comments!
If you have already contacted the Department of the Interior (DOI) to
allow carry in parks, DO IT AGAIN!
To comment on the proposed rule, click here:
http://tinyurl.com/5juwn3
For "Submitter's Representative," type in your Congressman's name.
Mine is "Congressman Eric Cantor"
For "Agency Type," select: FEDERAL
For "Government Agency," select: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
SUGGESTED "GENERAL COMMENT" TEXT:
--
Pursuant to the US Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia vs.
Dick Heller, both the existing and proposed National Park Service &
National Wildlife Refuge weapons regulations are invalid,
unconstitutional and void. The Virginia Citizens Defense League and
over 4 dozen co-petitioning organizations advised the Parks service of
this as long ago as 2004. Since the holding in Heller is that their
total ban on handguns infringes the 2nd Amendment, DOI and NPS should
accept the VCDL petition language as follows and implement the
regulation IMMEDIATELY after the comment period closing.
Under existing legal doctrine, once a law is held unconstitutional, it
is stricken; in the case of the park service CFR 36, regulation 2.4,
it is almost exactly the same as the District of Columbia, and
therefore void. Further, the DOI proposed regulation with it's flawed
"analogous state lands" language and is thereby also in violation
since any state level bans on bearing arms in analogous state lands
would also be implicated under Heller. The Department of the Interior
is hereby instructed to IMMEDIATELY amend the current regulations
pursuant to the VCDL petition language, copied below and the decision
of the US Supreme court rendered in Heller. The Supreme Court held
that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right protecting the rights to
keep arms and bear arms which supersedes CFR 36 regulation 2.4.
While I support the proposed change to permit loaded firearms /
weapons in National Parks and Wildlife refuges, the proposed
regulation should be amended as follows:
"A person may possess, carry, and transport loaded, and operable
firearms or other weapons within a national park area in the same
manner, and to the same extent, that a person may lawfully possess,
carry, and transport loaded and operable firearms or other weapons in
the state in which the federal park, or that portion thereof, is
located, provided that such possession, carrying and transporting
otherwise complies with applicable federal and state law."
And for National Wildlife Refuges:"
A person may possess, carry, and transport loaded, and operable
firearms or other weapons within a national wildlife refuge area in
the same manner, and to the same extent, that a person may lawfully
possess, carry, and transport loaded and operable firearms or other
weapons in the state in which the federal wildlife refuge, or that
portion thereof, is located, provided that such possession, carrying
and transporting otherwise complies with applicable federal and state
law."
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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page:
http://www.vcdl.org
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