Officials at two national parks in western South Dakota won't officially oppose a proposal by South Dakota's two U.S. senators and 45 of their colleagues to make it easier to pack a pistol in national parks.

But spokesmen for Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park do say that current restrictions on guns seem to be working well in those parks.

"It's something I wouldn't advocate," Badlands Superintendent Paige Baker said about the senators' proposal loosen those restrictions. "The system is working as it is. When people come out here, it's to look at the wildlife and the natural beauty, not to shoot."

Wind Cave spokesman Tom Farrell said the National Park Service hasn't taken a position on the senators' proposal. But Farrell said tighter security measures after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, have restricted guns in many public places, so national park restrictions aren't out of line.

"In this time of increased security at federal buildings and public venues, there are many areas where guns and firearms are not allowed," he said. "The law is meant to protect not only our wildlife but the people who come to visit our parks."

Republican Sen. John Thune and Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson are among 47 senators who have asked U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to relax existing restrictions on the possession of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. Interior Department officials are considering the request.

The senators say gun regulations in national parks and wildlife refuges should not be more restrictive than they are on other federal lands, including national forests and land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

Most of those sprawling expanses of public land are generally open to hunting within established seasons.

Currently, people who bring guns into national parks must have them unloaded, cased and inaccessible. Similar rules apply on national wildlife refuges, outside of the scheduled hunting seasons that some refuges allow.

LaCreek National Wildlife Refuge near Martin, for example, has a number of hunting seasons each year. Officials there said they haven't had major problems with violations of the restrictions.

Hunting is banned in almost all of the more than 50 national parks, including Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park, as well as Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Hunting is generally allowed in established seasons in national recreation areas, however.

Mount Rushmore Superintendent Gerard Baker said visitors to the famous faces seldom violate the gun policy there and respond well if asked to store a weapon properly.

Farrell said there are occasional incidents in Wind Cave, a 28,000-acre park near Hot Springs, where someone will shoot at wildlife from a highway or road passing through the park.

"Oftentimes, it's hunters who are on the way to other areas," he said. "We suspect they get excited, forget where they are and start shooting. We've actually had rangers on patrol witness people shooting a coyote."

Those people are subject to federal prosecution.

Thune said Friday that he doesn't expect such incidents to increase with a change in the gun regulations. Nor does he think that allowing people to enter national parks carrying legally permitted weapons that they carry elsewhere in the state will lessen public safety there.

"I don't see this as leading to any less safety," Thune said. "I think it's just standardizing what the different federal agencies do. It's kind of a pain if you're going through a park and have a firearm and suddenly have to get it out, pull the clip and make sure it's put away. It just seems like a lot of unnecessary regulations on people."

Johnson and his staffers couldn't be reached for comment late Friday afternoon.

Farrell said the gun restrictions in national parks date back to the 1880s, when federal officers began checking the guns of visitors to Yellowstone National Park.

"When you'd check in at the entrance station, they'd put a seal on your gun," he said. "And when you left the park, they'd check to make sure that seal was still in place."

With roads winding through parks like Wind Cave, it's difficult to know how many people adhere to the restrictions, Farrell said.

But if people are found with inappropriately secured guns, they are stopped and told to store them properly. That's especially true at the park headquarters, where tours of the cave are given.

"Currently, if we see someone with a firearm, we stop them from entering the cave," Farrell said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com