Arming Iowa’s park rangers could create lethal situations

After leaving work one October afternoon 21 years ago I spotted two men near a ramshackle barn on a farm the Nature Center had just purchased. Because crumbling buildings remained on the land our board of directors decided to open it for public use only after we were able to raze them and make the property safe.

Thinking the camo clad men were bowhunters who didn't know they weren't supposed to be on the property I parked and began walking the 300 yards toward them. As I got closer I could see one was armed with an M-16 type rifle and the other an AK-47. Both were watching me.

I should have called the police but Army training of years past kicked in and I crouched down. Hidden by tall grass and brush I made a wide circle and emerged unseen just behind the men. They were leaning against a round hay bale with rifles aimed at where I would have been had I stayed on my original route.

I was being hunted! Rage trumped reason and I yelled, 'drop the guns”. Startled, the men dashed across the hayfield with me on their heels. A barb wire fence slowed them just long enough to overtake and disarm them. They were boys about 17 years old carrying realistic looking replica guns-fake rifles incapable of firing.

After giving them a heated tongue lashing about the dangers of aggressively using replica guns the boys scurried off. Then the enormity of the incident hit like a fist, and with body quaking I leaned against a tree.

Had I been armed and had they turned on me the outcome would have been catastrophic. I had the drop on them and would have tragically ended two young lives and spent the rest of my life living with it. Instead, we both learned lessons. Hopefully they ditched the fake guns, and if it ever happens again I'll control anger and call the police.

Iowa is arming state park rangers with military style weapons. Odds are they will never encounter a terrorist or murderer in the woods or campground, but chances of confronting harmless but oddly behaving people are high.

Arming state employees with powerful rifles could force them to make a split second decision when under duress. Pull or don't pull the trigger. The wrong decision transforms an innocuous yet dangerous appearing situation into a tragedy.

' Rich Patterson served as Director of the Indian Creek Nature Center from 1978 until 2013. Comments: editorial@thegazette.com