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OC Rocky Mountain National Park

blcfalcon1

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Messages
22
Location
Littleton, Colorado, United States
So I was forcefully volunteered to help chaperone a youth group camping trip last weekend. Therefore, I decided I might as well bring along my Px4 and try out my new thigh holster. Turns out they didn't really need my help when we arrived to the campsite so I went on my own little adventure. It was actually pretty nice wandering the trails with the .40.

Overall, it was pretty uneventful...save for when it started getting dark and I happened to have twisted my knee. Then being paranoid, I managed to sprint 9 miles on my injury. I know there weren't any recent mountain lion attacks but whenever I knocked over a rock, it would thud as if a large animal was chasing after me. So I'd draw my weapon and use the weapon light to check for eye shine before taunting the beast and moving on. It really sucked to lose track of time then hike at night.

The next day, I got help for a fellow hiker who happened to twist her knee falling into a crevasse two miles into an intermediate trail. After helping stablize her leg, I ran the two miles back with my sidearm secure and not falling out heheh. Eventuality got to a ranger station and reported the incident.

As for OC grief, there wasn't really any. A ranger asked me what I carried and we talked about his old .38. During my rescue run, a hiker caught me when I stopped to take a breathe what I carried. The rangers at the station thought I was an LEO because of my sidearm, to which I denied. The only grief I got was the rangers asking me to put my weapon away because I was making people nervous, which I denied. But I was happy that the rangers assured the complainers that I was a good guy that assisted an injured hiker. So instead of waiting out in the sun, I started to go to a bench in the shade to wait for the rest of my youth group to return from that two mile hike, when the same ranger asked me to sit down to make myself less obvious. Since I was already heading to sit, I complied.

My only complaint is that my grief came from uneducated people who don't know their rights. Everyone else was cool though.
 

since9

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
6,964
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Eventuality got to a ranger station and reported the incident.

I've spent too much time in the backcountry to worry about lions and bears. I've had both sniffing around my tent on many occasions. So long as they smell only you inside, and not food, you're reasonably safe behind that thin denier nylon weave.

The only grief I got was the rangers asking me to put my weapon away because I was making people nervous...

Oh, and their firearms aren't making people nervous... On a more realistic note, your firearm wasn't making people any more nervous than their firearms. About the only people you might have actually made nervous are the rangers themselves.

But I was happy that the rangers assured the complainers that I was a good guy that assisted an injured hiker.

That was nice of them.

...the same ranger asked me to sit down to make myself less obvious.

Ok, perhaps you weren't actually making the rangers (plural) nervous. Perhaps you were only making that one ranger nervous.

Last time I checked, when a law-abiding citizen is engaged in a lawful activity on federal land and that activity is protected by federal law, federal agents cannot obstruct your lawful rights under the Constitution and federal law to continue engaging in your lawful activity just because one of them is "nervous."

Send this to the head ranger covering RMNP. He'll get a kick out of it. I met him last year while OCing in RMNP a month or two after the change went into effect. It was a simple, fairly short conversation. Sure, he was checking me out, deciding on whether I was a nut or a normal guy.

He didn't once bring up the subject of my firearm. Interestingly, I didn't once bring up the subject of his firearm, either.
 

Dynamite Rabbit

Regular Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2008
Messages
220
Location
Longmont, CO, ,
There were about 4-5 rangers outside giving directions and whatnot...and open carry is legal there...its only unlawful to discharge

Open carry isn't allowed in any building where federal employees work, if I remember right. There was a concern that even toilets and outhouses would be excluded from open carry, but I believe the decision was that employees had to regularly work in a building for it to be prohibited. Ranger stations are clearly prohibited places, and all I've visited have had signs at the doors.
 

blcfalcon1

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2011
Messages
22
Location
Littleton, Colorado, United States
Open carry isn't allowed in any building where federal employees work, if I remember right. There was a concern that even toilets and outhouses would be excluded from open carry, but I believe the decision was that employees had to regularly work in a building for it to be prohibited. Ranger stations are clearly prohibited places, and all I've visited have had signs at the doors.

Oh i understand what you meant now...i didnt see any signs at this particular station since it was just a shack and some windows
 

since9

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
6,964
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
Oh i understand what you meant now...i didnt see any signs at this particular station since it was just a shack and some windows

This is one instance where I would not trust the lack of a sign to be evidence that it's ok to OC inside. Use your judgement, instead. If the shack is where a park ranger stands collecting tickets or disseminating brochures all day, it's a safe bet that meets the no-firearms requirements.

I'm more concerned about the gift shops and nature centers. Federal employees? Contracted service providers? A mix? What's the rule, here?
 

mahkagari

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2009
Messages
1,186
Location
, ,
I'm more concerned about the gift shops and nature centers. Federal employees? Contracted service providers? A mix? What's the rule, here?

IME, they're all signed. It's not like the post office that defaults to them being illegal. I don't believe there is a blanket federal law that says you can't carry if federal employees work there, is there?

TMK, the law Obama signed allows carry according to the laws of the state where the National Park is. I.e. barring a specific sign, the NP rules default to CO law.
 

zwvirtual

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2011
Messages
16
Location
Loveland, Colorado
I've OC'd at in RMNP a couple of times now and have had no issues. As for which buildings are off limits they will be marked with the red circle with a slash through a gun. Only buildings where employees are at will be off limits. Outhouses are not off limits. Enjoy the park!
 

since9

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
6,964
Location
Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA
I've OC'd at in RMNP a couple of times now and have had no issues. As for which buildings are off limits they will be marked with the red circle with a slash through a gun. Only buildings where employees are at will be off limits. Outhouses are not off limits. Enjoy the park!

Good input.

So, we're good to go in the great outdoors, as well as in outhouses. How about gift shops, general stores, and museums within the park(s)? Yes, we could waltz up and see the posted sign, however, I'd prefer to know if/which of the above three stores is considered one "where Federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties." Are gift shop cashiers "Federal employees?" What about the other two?

I suspect museums would be off-limits, as the rangers usually conduct the tours and presentations. But if gift shops and general stores are off-limits as well, that pretty much relegates OC to outdoors, outhouses, and outside the park.

Not exactly palatable, in my book. If I can OC in Walmart, I should be able to OC in a general store or gift shop of a national park. Just because a cashier's paycheck comes from a different location than Bentonville, AR, does not in the slightest change the nature of the person behind the register, or, for that matter, the nature of the person on this side of it, either.

We're all Americans! High time we start acting like it.
 

zwvirtual

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2011
Messages
16
Location
Loveland, Colorado
My advice is to look for the warning sign. If you see it, then you know you can't go in. I think the Nat'l Park system was pretty well prepared for this. Before I OC'd up there for the first time last year I called the park ranger office and asked them about it (I wanted to gauge their feelings about it) and they were very positive about it. Their response was "We have to abide by the law".
 
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