Gun-Proponent Senator Calls for Disarming Parks, Forestry Officers

WASHINGTON — Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Ida.), an outspoken opponent of gun control for private citizens, wants to disarm thousands of federal officers who patrol national forests, parks and wildlife refuges.

Craig, a board member of the National Rifle Assn., says people are increasingly frightened by the presence of “an armed federal entity” in the West.

“There has always been a healthy suspicion of the federal agent. Now there is developing a healthy fear especially if the agent is armed,” Craig told the Associated Press on Thursday.

Craig said guns are not needed at the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management or the Fish and Wildlife Service. He said he would maintain some armed law officers at the National Park Service because that agency “is a manager of people as much as a protector of property.”

The senator said there was no inconsistency in his defense of the right to bear arms at a time he was calling for disarming federal agents.

“The Second Amendment applies to private citizens. We have always controlled and determined who packs a gun as a law enforcement officer,” he said.

About 6,700 law officers carry guns for Interior Department agencies, department spokesman Jamie Workman said Thursday.

Those officers include the National Park Service, 3,200; the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2,260; the Fish and Wildlife Service, 1,000; the Bureau of Land Management, 251, and the Bureau of Reclamation, 14.