Interior Dept. to Examine Impact of Guns in Public Parklands

The Obama administration said yesterday that it will not appeal a federal court ruling prohibiting the carrying of loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.

Instead, the Interior Department said it will conduct a full environmental review of an earlier policy that allowed concealed, loaded guns in parks and refuges.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down the gun policy last month. She called the rule, issued in the waning days of the Bush administration, severely flawed and said that officials failed to evaluate its possible environmental impacts, as required by law. The judge set an April 20 deadline for the Interior Department to indicate its likely response.

The Bush rule, which took effect in January, allowed visitors to carry a loaded gun into a park or wildlife refuge as long as the person had a permit for a concealed weapon and the state where the park or refuge was located allowed concealed firearms.

Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said yesterday that the department is not completely discarding the Bush rule. Instead, she said that officials intend to complete a comprehensive environmental impact statement that analyzes the possible effects of the Bush rule, as well as a range of alternatives.

The review is expected to take several months at least. In the meantime, 26-year-old restrictions that had been in place before the rule change remain in effect.

Even without an appeal by the Obama administration, the court case is likely to continue. The National Rifle Association has filed a separate appeal of the ruling. A spokesman has said the group will pursue all legal and legislative avenues "to defend the American people's right to self-defense."

Lawmakers who support gun owners' rights have introduced legislation to reinstate the Bush rule. Bills introduced by Sen. Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho) and Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) would allow citizens to carry concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges.