What do you think about Colorado allowing loaded firearms in the National Forest?

I hate it! Just like Virginia, which now lets people carry concealed weapons into bars.

What was wilderness area in Colorado is crawling with armed and often drunken out-of-state hunters for an ever longer part of the year, as the hunting season extends and includes more every year. (Have to have that revenue.) In the county I live in (in Colorado), I can legally wear or carry my handgun as long as it’s not concealed. Our crime rate is negligable, at least where it comes to people shooting people. I’m not afraid of bears or mountain lions, though they’re all around here, they mostly don’t bother anyone. I’m far more concerned with rattlers. I have guns because this isn’t the city. If you think the po-po takes its own sweet time in the ghetto, try placing a 911 call (if you can find a signal) in the high country.

And now to your question :): I think anyone backpacking or camping in a national park or other wilderness area around here is wise to carry a loaded gun. Am I naive enough to think that even 25% of them know how to handle a gun responsibly? No, including a lot of the hunters. Would I advocate it outside an area other than this wild west wilderness where I live and where everyone’s already packing .. say the Red Rocks or Pikes Peak area? Probably not. Even with the tourists on the worst summer day, this place is sparsely populated and there’s no end to the ways you can get yourself hurt.

I like to be able to shoot back as I have had 3 instances in the back roads of National Forests around here where I would have loved to have my gun with me. I feel safer on the streets of Chicago than I do out in the back woods 200 miles from the nearest pay phone. Lot of creepy people out in the back woods who make it quite clear they don’t like strangers in their land even though it’s public land.

we have had two wierd and scary encounters in the wilderness, out in the middle of nowhere, no cell coverage. (not with animals) – good to be able to carry weapons.

@marinelife well, that doesn’t sound smart at all

I live on 120 acres in the mountains of British Columbia. We have grizzly, black bears, coyotes, cougars, and wolves coming through here. Everyone who lives in this kind of an environment owns at least one, usually more, firearms. Confrontations with these animals is not likely to occur at any given time, but on the rare occasions when it happens, having a weapon is essential.

Then there is the more dangerous predator: a hostile huma. Where I live it would take 40 minutes, minimum, for a police officer to arrive on a scene. That’s assuming you are at a place where you can call.

Much the same conditions prevail in the national parks.

For those who abhor guns, I can understand the stress she or he might feel knowing that someone else nearby is armed. There are of course no guarantees. However, knowledge that anyone in the vicinity might be armed is a strong deterrent to hostile and violent behavior. To borrow from Robert A. Heinlin (hope I have the spelling right there), “An armed society is a polite society.”

Would you rather they allow them on school campuses?

Pacific Rimjob -

I don’t see how your oomment relates to the question posed by the original poster.