Editorial: Disarmed

Bambi is safe for now, along with all the other living things that frolic in U.S. national parks and wildlife refuges.

Thanks to a federal judge's recent ruling, the Bush administration's wacky plan to let visitors tote concealed, loaded guns in parks is on hold.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly overturned a rule issued as the Bush team was packing up family photos. For a few weeks after the rule took effect in mid-January, anyone who had a carry permit was allowed to go armed into the woods - providing the park's host state hadn't banned the practice.

The rule, widely opposed by park advocates as dangerous, wasn't going to be a problem in New Jersey, where handguns are regulated in parks. But a recent relaxing of Pennsylvania's ban on carrying loaded weapons in state parks meant it was open season for gun-toting park visitors in the Keystone State.

The judge's order makes those parks safer, for now. Still needed: a full, formal reversal of the guns-in-parks order from the Obama administration.