It appears that the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) is pushing a Petition for Rulemaking to the Department of Interior that would finally force them to at least consider the issue of allowing permit holders to carry firearms in national parks. 

From their home page:

VCDL has a Petition for Rule Making (PRM) ready to present to the Department of the Interior. The PRM will force the Department of The Interior (DOI) to consider allowing permit holders to carry in National Parks. They will have to hold a public comment period and we will advise when that happens so that you can let them know how law-abiding gun owners feel about this important issue.

For now we need as many national and state organizations to sign on to it as possible. We are NOT looking for individuals to be a petitioner, but individuals should contact their state and national organizations to encourage them to sign on to the PRM ASAP.

National and state gun organizations: Print out the entire petition so you can read it and fill in the last page. You can then either fax the last page to me at (804) 739-8376 or you can mail the last page to me at:

Philip Van Cleave
VCDL
5509 West Bay Court
Midlothian, VA 23112-2506

I will be sending this in around February 1st, 2005, so please get the signed pages to me as soon as possible.

Thanks!

At present it is illegal by federal rule to carry a firearm in a national park, even if the park is in a state where you would otherwise be allowed to do so by state law.  As I wrote previously I’d like to see the federal government obey state laws in this regard, rather than ignore the rights of the citizens.