Your help is needed to make sure the right is permanently recognized.

The Bush administration, after more than seven years, has finally issued regulations permitting the carrying of firearms in national parks. Gun owners will soon be able to carry firearms according to the laws of the state in which the park is located. While not perfect, the proposed regulations, which are likely to take effect at the end of June 2008, represent a sharp contrast with the steadfast refusal to allow for self-defense in national parks.

The bureaucrats responded after a crescendo of congressional activity. Senator Tom Coburn has made efforts to put the matter before the Senate, and would have done so had Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid not broken his word to Coburn to allow him to have a vote on the measure. Also, 47 Senators signed a letter to the Department of the Interior urging that the ban be removed.

In the House, there are now three bills that would open national parks to carrying firearms as regulated by the state in which the park is located.

The most recent bill, and the most comprehensive, is that of GOA Life Member Paul Broun (R-GA), who was elected to Congress in July of last year. Rep. Broun has introduced HR 5646, the "Protecting the Second Amendment and Hunting Rights on Federal Lands Act of 2008."

This is not the time to slack off on our efforts. If congressional activity got the Park Service bureaucrats to finally move, we need to keep the heat on. We need to make sure they follow through.

Group to pick up trash -- and carry firearms

MANCHESTER – Dave Ridley donned a Wookiee suit to drum up support for Republican Ron Paul in the New Hampshire primary.

Today, he plans to wear a Glock 9 mm pistol, holstered at his hip, to celebrate the right to openly carry a firearm in New Hampshire.

The public display -- sans the shaggy "Star Wars" costume -- is another political message he and a group of pistol-packing friends will offer as they bag litter along Central Street.

"It seems to resonate with people, and even if it doesn't resonate, it cleans up the street," Ridley said on his Central Street stoop, where the doormat says, "Come Back With a Warrant."