Suit filed over national parks system firearms ban

Bellevue, Wash. — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a lawsuit challenging the ban on firearms possession in federal facilities operated by the National Park Service.

The lawsuit specifically challenges the constitutionality of federal law 18 U.S.C. § 930(a), which bars knowingly possessing a firearm in a federal facility, as applied to federal facilities operated by the National Park Service. The law defines a federal facility in the National Park System as “… government offices, visitor centers, ranger stations, fee collection buildings, and maintenance facilities.” Park officials themselves are also allowed to impose park-specific restrictions on where firearms may be carried.

“More than 300 million people traveled through the National Park System last year, and each of them were unconstitutionally barred from carrying firearms inside specific buildings at those parks,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Campers wishing to carry a firearm for self-defense in these parks, for instance, are made to disarm before stepping foot inside a visitor center or ranger station to obtain a permit to camp. This disenfranchisement forces peaceable citizens to choose between following the registration rules for each park or going unarmed while they gather the proper documentation allowing them to enjoy our National Park System. That’s not a choice any law-abiding American should have to make.”

As noted in the complaint, “The Supreme Court has squarely held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, and that all responsible, law-abiding Americans are entitled to exercise that right. In Bruen, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms fully extends to general carry of arms in public.” SAF is joined in Zimmerman v. Bondi by the Firearms Policy Coalition and private citizen Gary Zimmerman.

“These so-called ‘sensitive places’ restrictions across the country are nothing more than an attempt by ideologues to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bruen,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.