I’ll have to stop you on that one. I’ve spent plenty of hours and days in the backcountry, and while I have run across plenty of characters, I haven’t seen many dangerous hikers at all. Drives me crazy when people spread a myth about the American woods being filled with deranged, insane, unstable, dangerous people when the crime rate in national parks is significantly less than in the rest of American society. I’d suspect the rate of sane to insane people is probably about the same or less in the wilderness compared to the rest of society. And if you run into a “lone, deranged and unstable mental patient or a freak running away from the law,” I doubt your gun is going to stop an assailant who isn’t thinking rationally.

The issue I raised here, though, isn’t whether people should or should not carry guns in American national parks. I’m focused instead on what affect the new law will have on national park safety measures. My prediction is because technology has improved to provide wireless web cams and safety risks increase with the introduction of loaded guns into national parks, the understaffed park service will look to Web cam technology to monitor resources, safety, animal herds to prohibit illegal activity.

I want to be clear … Yellowstone has made no specific decision at this time to implement surveillance cameras in the backcountry for the purpose of safety. They have merely raised the possibility in their comprehensive plan.

Yellowstone officials are considering strongly the possibility of using web cams for resource management. For example, monitoring buffalo herd migration during the worst of the winter months.