Today, Representative Mo Brooks [R-AL] will introduce the Lawful Interstate Transportation of Firearms Act. Like Senator Steve Daines of Montana’s Days later SB 3139, this bill is intended to fix serious weaknesses in the “safe passage” provision of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986; weaknesses which have allowed anti-rights states like New York and New Jersey to harass and arrest honest gun owners trying to do the right thing.
We obtained an advance copy of Lawful Interstate Transportation of Firearms Act. It closes those loopholes. Key provisions make it unlawful to arrest an honest gun owner complying with storage requirements* unless he has committed some other crime.
8 ‘‘(c)(1) A person who is transporting a firearm, am-
9 munition, magazine, or feeding device may not be arrested
10 or otherwise detained for violation of any law or any rule
11 or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof
12 related to the possession, transportation, or carrying of
13 firearms, ammunition, magazine, or feeding device un-
14 less—
15 ‘‘(A) there is probable cause to believe that the
16 person is doing so in a manner not provided for in
17 subsection (a); and
18 ‘‘(B) there is probable cause to believe that the
19 person has committed a crime other than the viola-
20 tion.
This bill extends those same same protections for firearms to ammunition, and magazines considered “high capacity” by some backward jurisdictions, which FOPA never did.
This bill gives up nothing, and reclaims much that was lost decades ago.
The Zelman Partisans fully support this bill, and hope you will also.
Likewise, Gun Owners of America has endorsed this bill. Yet, the Vichy NRA has not. Sources say an unnamed gun group objected to Rep. Brooks’ bill because it thought the “probable cause to believe that the person has committed a crime” clause went too far. Draw your own conclusions.
* We realize this bill requires firearms to be stored, and that we should be allowed to constitutionally carry arms ready for use. We believe national reciprocal carry is best addressed in its own specific legislation.
[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]
