3. INTERIOR: Judge blocks concealed carry rule for national parks (Greenwire, 03/20/2009)

Eric Bontrager, E&E reporter

A new federal regulation allowing visitors at national parks to carry concealed weapons is on hold after a federal judge ordered the Interior Department to reassess the science behind its decision.

Yesterday's injunction from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly halts a last-minute environmental decision made by the Bush administration, which overturned the Interior Department's longstanding policy against hidden firearms on protected lands.

The decision reinstates the previous rule and gives Interior until April 20 to review the new rule and indicate its intended course of action.

Under the old rule, visitors to federal lands were required to unload and secure their weapons. The new rule allows visitors to carry concealed firearms into parks and refuges in states with laws that allow concealed firearms -- even if those states have outlawed concealed weapons in their own parks. The only exceptions are Illinois and Wisconsin, which do not allow concealed carry.

The rule went into effect Jan. 11, but three gun violence and park conservation groups asked for an injunction. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the Coalition of Park Service Retirees and the National Parks Conservation Association say the rule is invalid because Interior failed to consider the rule's effects as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Obama's Justice Department has defended the rule in court, arguing that the challenge is unlikely to succeed because the groups have not proved the rule would increase the danger to park visitors or wildlife.

But Kollar-Kotelly wrote in her opinion that the government's process leading to the decision was "astoundingly flawed," enough so that "plaintiffs have met their burden to establish a likelihood of irreparable harm, even though the precise scope of that harm may not be fully known unless and until defendants comply with the procedural obligations imposed by NEPA."

Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said the department was reviewing the decision but could not comment further. During a roundtable discussion with reporters earlier this month, Salazar said the department is still examining the environmental impacts of the gun rule but said both he and President Obama support the rights of gun owners.

"I will also say that I think it is one of those issues that distracts the nation and distracts the Department of Interior from the more important agendas that we have to work on," he said. "We have huge work ahead of us as we deal with the challenges of the new energy frontier ... those are the agendas that I intend to spend most of my time on."

Interior's gun rules were established in the 1930s to address poaching and were amended in 1983 to allow unloaded firearms to be carried in parks and refuges. The department has said the recent rule change would resolve conflicts between state and federal regulations that complicate efforts to police firearms on public land.

While the National Rifle Association, Republicans and some Western Democrats have supported the rule change, several conservation groups, law enforcement organizations and former National Park Service chiefs have spoken out against the change, calling it unnecessary and dangerous.

"The former regulation, which is now effective again, was working just fine," said Bryan Faehner, associate director of the National Parks Conservation Association. "The regulation promulgated under the Bush administration was flawed, and we hope the new administration will move forward appropriately on this."

Kollar-Kotelly's ruling also granted the NRA's motion to intervene in the case, which opens the door for the group to appeal the injunction. NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said the group intends to do so, because the new rule is needed to clear up confusion about gun-carrying rules in parks that cover multiple states and to ensure the right of park visitors to defend themselves.

"Just as we did not give up the fight to change the old, outdated rule, we will not give up our fight in the courts to defend the rule change," Cox said in a statement. "We will pursue every legal avenue to defend the American people's right to self-defense."

Click here to view the ruling.

Reporter Noelle Straub contributed to this report.

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