There are only 300-400 active wingsuit base jumpers in the world. You cannot see or hear them until their parachutes open. Canopy rides typically last 20-30s or less. There are less than 2000 base jumpers total recorded in history. When I land in the park and walk out, I sometimes ask people if they have seen anything funny just to get an idea for what my exposure is. Everyone is oblivious to anything having happened.
edit: here is an example of how much base jumpers care about the environment and preserving it http://www.kmvt.com/news/latest/Perrine-Bridge-Canyon-Clean-... Chuma has been leading these clean ups for the past few years along with many other local jumpers.
There is a law against illegal aerial delivery, not BASE jumping.
Furthermore, the US has made laws putting the Japanese in internment camps, mandating race segregation, regulating the trade of slaves, etc etc. U.S Law is not a great moral compass for how you should feel about a given activity.
I never thought I would wake up to see base jumping on hacker news.
I actively do wingsuit base jumping in Yosemite National Park. I will clear up several misconceptions.
(1) The amount of work it takes to carry all the appropriate gear up to Half Dome or El Cap will keep away anyone but the most serious jumpers. Removing the reference of parachutes/BASE jumping from the National Parks Aerial delivery law will not lead to a huge increase in jumpers. One of the problems that plagues the BASE jumping death statistics is, that unlike rock climbing, there is no physical barrier to taking on jumps that are beyond your skill level. Thankfully there are no gondolas in yosemite as there are in the alps.
(2) Even then, El Cap and Half Dome are two of the safest jumps in the world. Half Dome has at its best exit points a 16s rock drop; El cap: 22 s. For reference, many of the deaths you read about in Europe are at places like Chamonix where a 2-4s start is mandatory for surviving the jump. You can literally slip/trip and do 3-4 somersaults off half dome or el cap and be out of harms way.
(3) Proximity flying is not dangerous when done with reserve. Nearly all of the youtube footage you see of people flying 10-15ft off the ground is that person in a steep dive, at any moment they can flatten out their wings and they will disconnect from the terrain. The latest versions of every manufacturer's larger suits have all been documented flying up 50-150ft in flares. You are putting yourself in the suicide zone if you are flying terrain that requires you to have near your peak glide ratio for the full duration of the flight.
It sounds like Graham and Dean's logic for talking themselves into flying the line is "there is a point 15s before the terrain, where we can abort flying the line." And that is why quite a few base jumpers will attribute lighting and the fact that BASE is illegal to Dean and Graham's death. Flying in low light will affect your ability to make judgment calls about glide ratio and trajectory.
(4) The other risk I've experienced first hand is flying in cold temperatures. Many jumpers will jump with bare minimum daylight in the early morning and late evening. I've done this several times, and your arm wings are noticeably more rigid as well as your body. I have enough $$ for the fine to not ruin me financially, so I go later in the morning, but not everyone feels they have this luxury.
(5) None of my friends nor myself do this for an adrenaline rush. I dislike the feeling of fear or gambling. I enjoy charting out worst case and best case scenarios and planning jumps that give me the requisite range of error. In some ways it is remarkably similar to test driven software development. Check out this National Geographic feature on the work that goes into planning a Wingsuit base jump http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/150526-wingsuit-b...
(6) Those who are chasing YouTube glory are in the minority. Most of the jumpers I have met so far are highly intelligent individuals somewhere on the autism spectrum (Matt G, Zach T, Adrian W). There are guys like Pat Walker who no one has heard of that are extraordinary pilots. You will never hear of or see some of the best stuff going on in the sport, because most folks are just doing it for themselves. Even if the sport were legal, you wouldn't see or hear of these guys. I have never heard a wingsuit pilot hoot or holler while in a national park. It's uncharacteristic.
(7) We are in the early days of wingsuit base jumping, I'd say it is akin to the early days of Formula One. As the sport becomes more mainstream the death rate will go down. The sorts of risks and stunts are more reflective of the sport's early adopters rather than the inherent danger of the sport. Flying a wingsuit off half dome and pitching in the middle of the valley is safer than skydiving, driving a car, or taking a hike for any qualified individual.
(8) Emergency Services are budgeted ahead of time. The taxpayer is not getting an extra bill from Dean and Graham's accident. Dean volunteered within park as a rescuer for years. Show some respect and gratitude. Also, many individuals are wealthy in the sport and will not be collecting their social security check, so show some gratitude for that too. Most of our major Obamacare+medicare costs come form overweight people and old people. There are no fat wingsuit base jumpers. And when we die, you avoid us soaking up those funds, so again off with your government $$ complaints.
(9) The time under canopy for most jumpers I know is less than 30 seconds on average. Wingsuits are so small that it is hard to see or notice them until the parachute opens. There are an approximate 300-400 wingsuit base jumpers in the world. And no more than 2000 base jumpers world wide; you'll hardly notice them in the park.
(10) For those with a regulatory hard-on, there is a licensing system in skydiving that could be used to ensure that the wrong people are not jumping. Requiring any jumper to obtain a permit verifying they have a D-license would keep out the inexperienced.
I could keep going addressing the amount of penis envy present in this thread and the comments of the NYTimes, but I'll just link to the SBA http://www.swissbaseassociation.ch/ It's only in the US that this is not considered a boring mountaineering related mid life crisis sport. Legit everywhere else.
That incident is as relevant to everyday BASE jumping as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouicSLOc_K8 is to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfipAgNRDx0