By Seabury Blair Jr. Special to the Peninsula Daily News
AS MOST GUN advocates know, it is now legal to carry concealed and loaded guns, including semi-automatic weapons, in most national parks and wildlife refuges, so long as you comply with the firearms laws of the park’s home state.
That means the next guy you meet on any Olympic National Park trail could be toting a pistol in his pack.
As perhaps fewer gun advocates know, it is likely legal to pack hidden heat in a national park without a concealed weapons permit.
I say “likely” because there may be some confusion in the law that governs toting weapons in Washington state.
The federal law allowing loaded guns in national parks went into effect on Monday, the same day as new rules imposing restrictions on credit card companies (you read that correctly).
It’s the way things work in Congress — the guns bill was attached as an amendment to the completely-unrelated credit card legislation last May.
The amendment overturned a 1983 law (and 94 years of National Park Service policy) that visitors unload and disassemble their guns and place them in their trunks, or somewhere locked or not-easily-accessible.
In Washington, it means park officials in Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascades can no longer bar legally permitted people with legal state concealed weapons permits who are packing pistols hidden in packs or pants.
Of course, hunting, target shooting and discharging a firearm is still illegal in national parks.
And weapons of individual destruction — WIDs — such as rifles, shotguns and pistols, are still prohibited in places marked by signs at public entrances, like the Olympic National Park Visitor Center in Port Angeles and the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.
So, what CAN you do with a hidden WID in a national park?
Well, you can display it and intimidate your fellow hikers, anglers and birdwatchers.
You can do the responsible thing and protect yourself and your loved ones from those who would do you harm in national parks.
You know, all those other people packing pistols.
But wait. There’s more.
Under the state law regulating Concealed Pistol Licenses, RCW 9.41.060, Section 8, exempts “any person engaging in a lawful outdoor recreational activity such as hunting, fishing, camping, hiking or horseback riding only if, considering all of the attendant circumstances . . . it is reasonable to conclude that the person is participating in lawful outdoor activities or is traveling to or from a legitimate outdoor recreation area.”
And that means that law-abiding outdoorsfolk who meet the provisions of the concealed pistol license law can pack hidden heat WITHOUT a license.
But wait. There’s even more.
Washington is an “open-carry” state, which means that as a general rule, a person may legally carry any WID in any place it is legal to possess a loaded handgun. About the only exception is in a vehicle, where a concealed pistol license is required.
So if you want to pack heat in Olympic or any other national park in this state, the simplest thing to do is buy a big WID and hang it in plain sight in a holster from your belt or backpack.
Talk about protection — it doesn’t get any more responsible than that.
Backpackers: you’ll want to find the lightest firepower you can.
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Seabury Blair Jr.’s latest book is The Creaky Knees Guide to Washington.
He’s also written Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula; Day Hike! Columbia Gorge; Backcountry Ski! Washington; Stummick, Hardbody and Me; and with Ron C. Judd, Day Hike! Mount Rainier.
E-mail him at Skiberry@pwimail.net.
