Anyone willing to challenge the National Park carry ban? Seems me might have a place where a precedent might be set:
The perfect place for the perfect crime?
Quote:
In 1872, Congress created the Yellowstone National Park -- the world's first national park -- as a federal enclave and not subject to state law, Kalt wrote.
In 1889 and 1890, Congress admitted Montana, Idaho and Wyoming into the Union.
But Congress erred by putting the entire Yellowstone National Park under the jurisdiction of the Wyoming U.S. District Court, an action that was and is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, he wrote.
All that seems arcane until someone gets arrested for going on a crime spree in the Idaho portion of the park, Kalt wrote.
The defendant rightly would claim Article III Section 2 requires the federal government to try him in Idaho where the crime occurred, he wrote.
"But the Sixth Amendment then requires that the jury be from the state (Idaho) and the district (Wyoming) in which the crime was committed," Kalt wrote. "In other words, the jury would have to be drawn from the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park, which, according to the 2000 Census, has a population of precisely zero."
The law establishing the park makes it impossible to satisfy the requirements of both venue and vicinage, he wrote. "Assuming that you do not feel like consenting to trial in Cheyenne, you should go free."
So, theoretically, were to you get caught carrying in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park, you couldn't be prosecuted. Or maybe that's been expressed as "shouldn't be", since the judge in the story seemed to have no problems whatsoever with declaring the problem as non-existent.
(For anyone who is considering actually challenging the law - I posted this in "Stupid Gun Stuff" for a reason.)
