You never know when you'll run into some dirty f*cking hippie tree hugger that needs shootin' like the terrorist traitors they are!
I hear they're thicker than bear poop up there in the Smokies.
Let's open the trails up to mud crawler trucks and ATVs too by Gawd!
And there's a lot of good timber just standin' there that could be put to good use.
Might as well open it up to mining too while we're at it.
Oh, and Rogers Group could put a quarry right in the middle of Cade's Cove for all the grand road development to follow!

(yes, this is sarcasm, sorry if I gave Glenn Reynolds an erection)

decapitated the young woman ..under this..would have had a gun rather than a knife to use..Oh well...
A bad idea...

With the recent human attacks* on bears over the last few years in the Cove, I would hate to see the carnage if firearms were legal, but a lot of folks are probably already packing anyway so maybe it wouldn't make that much difference.

*human attack - when a human attacks a bear trying to make a meal of Bambi.

What is proposed is to allow persons who possess a "handgun carry permit" to carry in a national park just like they can outside of the park boundary - i.e., for self-defense and as permitted by the 2nd amendment. With a handgun carry permit one can legally carry a loaded handgun throughout Townsend or Pigeon Forge; but venture a few feet over into the park and you would be arrested on a felony offense.

Criminals frequently prey on the innocents in parks. They also are not deterred by the current restrictions banning guns from the parks. I'm sure the family of the girl hiker killed in GA wishes she had been permitted and armed during her hike in a national park.

This is not a hunting issue or target shooting issue at all.

If we now have to get a permit and go armed to enjoy the outdoors in our state and national parks, then it's a sad, sad day for America.

This is being pushed on the state level also. Concealed Carry in state parks was defeated by clever maneuvering by Senate Democrats. Commissioner Fyke and Gov. Bredesen are both concerned. The wording will allow cc at little league baseball parks, etc. etc.

And for nothing. The safest place you can be in Tennessee is a State Park. These folks are insane on some level. At the least...Clincally insecure.