Guns in Parks
Remember, you don’t need guns in parks because the odds of you running into a violent criminal or wild animal are slim. Except that part where Mexican drug gangs are commandeering land in the parks to grow marijuana:
Not far from Yosemite’s waterfalls and in the middle of California’s redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.
Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, but Mexican traffickers have taken it to a whole new level: using armed guards and trip wires to safeguard sprawling plots that in some cases contain tens of thousands of plants offering a potential yield of more than 30 tons of pot a year.
See, America’s lax park laws are contributing to drug violence. Just like our lax gun laws.
March 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am
I think Stingray should procure a writ of Marke from the park services. That might be more fun than hunting pirates!
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:26 am
Handguns against AKs? Only from ambush, and carefully even then….
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Just a quibble: The land they’re talking about in the article is owned by the Forest Service, not the Park Service.
Big difference in terms of management. And not surprising, either, since Forest Service and BLM lands out west are virtually unpatrolled, as compared to Park Service lands.
March 2nd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Old news. The drug warriors have been pushing this same story out every 2 or 3 yrs since the late 80’s
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:27 am
I love that “old news” bit. Anything that happens more than once you can just say “old news” and dismiss it.
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:32 am
Captain Holly, it makes no difference. Many Parks are adjacent to forest service lands. When I backpack it’s not unusual to traverse through several kinds of land. And if you had read the article, you’d know there are pot grows in National Parks as well.