Recent proposals in the U.S. Congress and within the Department of the Interior seek to allow visitors to carry loaded firearms, including concealed ones, in our national parks in accordance with state laws.

This is a terrible idea for many reasons.

First of all, it represents an attempt by the NRA to advance its agenda by inventing a problem that doesn't exist.

Loaded guns have been prohibited in national parks since the 1930s. These rules work, and have long contributed to the indisputable fact that our national parks are among the safest places in America.

The prohibition on loaded guns has also been an essential part of the efforts to protect wildlife and prevent poaching.

Key to the success of this regulation is public support.

Experience tells us that park visitors, including hunters and gun owners, seem to understand that parks are special places and that loaded guns are not needed and are not appropriate.

The change in regulations advocated by the NRA, however, could break what is not broken and change the nature of our national parks.

We know that more and more of our visitors are urban based and often out of their comfort zones while enjoying their national parks.

Unfortunately, we have seen incidents where an impulsive and inexperienced visitor has used lethal force when perceiving even the slightest threat from a bison, a bear, an alligator or even a much smaller animal.

Under the regulations advocated by the NRA, park wildlife would be in far greater danger as more people would arm themselves with a gun and a false sense of security.

Equally dangerous, routine disagreements in campgrounds, parking lots, restaurants and lodges are more likely to turn lethal, just as they too often do in the cities and rural areas around parks where state laws provide for easy access to loaded firearms.

And, of course, the propaganda by the NRA that existing rules are inconsistent and hard to understand is ludicrous.

What can be easier to understand than current regulations, which apply a long-established single set of rules throughout our national system of parks?

Apart from these practical considerations, however, is the greater concern presented by this proposal, for it demonstrates total disregard for how our society values its national parks.

The propaganda of the NRA suggests that we should regulate firearms so that parks are no different than other federal and state lands. Yet, it is clear that previous generations of Americans meant these places to be special.

Our national parks should not become simply another notch in the NRA gun belt.

I urge those who want to keep visitors and wildlife in national parks safe to contact their elected officials, along with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and express their opposition to changing the regulations that have served the National Park Service and visitors well for so many years.

Bruce Black of Corvallis retired after a 35-year career with the National Park Service.