The opinion piece in today's Chronicle gushes the same typical, anti-gun diatribe that gun-control supporters regurgitate every time: We MUST restrict legal, law-abiding gun owners to insure they don't go off and shoot up everything!!!

There are several faulty arguments here.

1. The requirement to unload and make gun "inaccessible" is "simple": Who defines whether a gun is accessible or not? Where is the "inaccessible" place for the millions of owners of pickups, vans, SUVs, and yes, even Subarus? Is disassembling my gun considered "simple"?

2. If a law-abiding citizen has easy access to a loaded gun, he/she will be much more likely to haul off and take pot shots at wildlife: Really? There are already laws coving the discharge of firearms in National Parks. Do you really think that if some gun owner is going to break one or two laws, that he/she will really be all that concerned about another?

3. There are no systematic searches of vehicles: It all depends on the attitude of the park officer who pulls you over for speeding, or writes a citation for parking in the wrong place. There is precedent of some officious police searching vehicles for "accessible" weapons (even unloaded) and then subjecting the owner to confiscation and stiff penalties.

4. The actual effect of this policy change will be to expose all park visitors to increased risk: This is an old, tired, and completely untrue argument. Every time in every place that law-abiding citizens have been allowed to carry weapons, there has NOT been an increase in shootings, and the actual crime rate has dropped.

I am not claiming that I fear for my life when entering the park. Also, I believe bear spray is more effective to ward off the potential wildlife attack. But why should one of my basic rights, yes, RIGHTS, be suspended just because I am in a National Park? Do we ignore or suspend other amendments of the Bill of Rights in National Parks?

This only thing the law in its current state does is make me, a law-abiding citizen, a criminal, because I cannot make my gun "inaccessible" when I drive into or even though the Park. The people we really need to worry about are the criminals who are already breaking laws, and who are even today "packing heat" into "secure" places like schools and parks. Gun-control advocates need to wake up and understand the difference between a law-abiding gun owner, and a criminal who by definition is not affected in any way by gun-control laws.