Last week's Question of the Week asked whether the Park Service should lift restrictions on bringing firearms into national parks. A majority of readers said it should not.

Among 1,031 responses to this unscientific poll, 601 wanted to keep the restrictions -- basically that guns should be unloaded and kept where they are not accessible, such as the trunk -- while 430 wanted them lifted.

The issue got into the news when 47 U.S. senators, including both senators from Montana, requested that the policy be changed.

Here are some readers' comments:

- Let's be clear, we already have the right to bring firearms into national parks. Hunters have transported guns through the park for years. National parks are by definition special places established for the enjoyment of the people and to preserve our American heritage including wildlife. The current policy allowing guns in the parks is working. It protects the safety of the visitors and the sanctity of the wildlife resource while not trampling our second amendment rights. The current effort to liberalize the policy is nothing more than a political action by paranoid gun-toting wingnuts in Idaho. It's doubtful that they really feel the need to have a loaded rifle over their shoulder in the dining area of Old Faithful with dozens of kids and families at their side. But if they do feel that need, then arguably they are the dangerous one.

- The government has no right, under the Constitution, to limit citizens' gun rights, even in national parks.

- (The National Parks Conservation Association) is very strongly opposed to changing the regulations in question.... The regulations were promulgated with the due procedural consideration during the Reagan administration.... It makes no sense to mount the costly and time-consuming procedure legally demanded by such a proposed rule change merely as a test of political will when the existing regulation is reasonable and any perceived inconvenience it creates is minimal. There is simply no legitimate or substantive reason for a thoughtful sportsman to carry a loaded gun in a national park unless that park permits hunting.