National Park Service
1849 C street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240
Apr 30 2007
Dear Senator:
Thank you for your letter regarding the National Park Service (NPS) firearms regulation. Your letter has been referred to my office for reply.
The NPS firearms regulation has provided necessary and consistent enforcement parameters throughout the Agency. Overall, the crime rates in our national park areas are very low. In 2006, there were over 272 million visits to the 390 park units. During that same year, there were approximately 384 violent crimes committed within the National Park System, including numbers reported by the United States Park Police, which focuses the majority of its law enforcement efforts in metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C., New York City, and San Francisco. The probability of becoming a victim of violent crime in a national park area is roughly 0.0001422% or 1 in 708,333.
Regarding concerns about wildlife, there have been over 1.3 billion visits to our national parks since 2002. During this timeframe, NPS records show two fatalities and 16 other reported serious injuries resulting from encounters with non-domestic animals. Again, a very low number of incidents relative to our number of visitors.
At this time, we do not think there is a compelling need to change the existing firearms regulation. Thank you again for your interest in our national park system. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance.
Sincerely,
Karen Taylor-Goodrich
Associate Director, Visitor and Resource Protection