It's Friday afternoon, and since everyone is at happy hour and no one reads the paper on Saturday, it's the perfect time for the Bush administration to do things it doesn't want you to find out about. That is why the Department of the Interior chose today to announce that it will lift the 25-year-old ban on carrying loaded weapons in national parks. This sop to the gun rights lobby is among many regulations Bush is finalizing as his time in office expires. Here is an excerpt from a joint statement from the National Parks Conservation Association, the Association of National Park Rangers, the Park Ranger Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees: The Administration received almost 140,000 comments, the vast majority of which opposed the proposal to allow loaded guns in national parks. Regrettably, the final regulation is even more extreme than the Administration's original proposal, and permits concealed and loaded guns to be carried in national parks located in any states with concealed carry laws, not just those that allow guns in their state parks as originally proposed. Only the three national park units in Wisconsin and Illinois, which do not issue concealed carry permits, are excluded. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, there were 1.65 violent crimes per 100,000 national park visitors in 2006—making national parks some of the safest places in the United States. The new regulation could increase the risk for impulse shootings of wildlife, and risk the safety of visitors and rangers. Despite the potential affect on national park wildlife and resources, the Administration did not conduct an environmental review as required by law.