Anchorage Daily News

Some former employees of the National Park Service, along with park advocates, were Friday expressing dismay about a Bush administration decision to allow people to carry concealed weapons -- where permitted by state laws -- in national parks and refuges.

But park service officials in Alaska didn't appear particularly concerned.

"We've had guns in the ANILCA parks since 1980 with no real troubles," noted Alaska region spokesman John Quinley. The legislation creating the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA, parks has always allowed for guns to be carried.

The only parks in Alaska where guns have been restricted are the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park in Skagway, the Sitka National Historic Park and the old sections of Denali, Katmai and Glacier Bay national parks.

Park service rangers here note that so many people carry guns in Alaska -- especially in the backcountry -- that firearms can be considered the norm. Still, the Coalition of National Park Service retirees blasted the change.

"Once again, political leaders in the Bush administration have ignored the preferences of the American public by succumbing to political pressure, in this case generated by the National Rifle Association," spokesman Bill Wade said. "This regulation will put visitors, employees and precious resources of the National Park System at risk. We will do everything possible to overturn it and return to a common-sense approach to guns in national parks that has been working for decades."

Alaska has among the most liberal concealed-carry laws in the nation. Anyone legally allowed to own a handgun can carry it in their purse or pocket, or under their anorak, just about anywhere.

The key exceptions are state court buildings, other justice-related agencies, school yards or child-care facilities, bars, domestic violence shelters or the private homes of people who don't give permission. And, up until now, the pre-ANILCA park.

But now Alaskans can legally carry guns under their parkas there too.

Find Craig Medred online at adn.com/contact/cmedred or call 257-4588.

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