FOPA is still not getting us what we traded away new machine guns for.
Delivery driver’s gun confiscated; group says his rights were violated
Mr. Felano said a Kentucky delivery driver was making his way to Fort Drum to deliver telephone poles. At the Gas Alley Gate entrance, the driver told military police of a 9 mm pistol he had in his truck, secured in a lock box. An MP confiscated the weapon, which Mr. Felano argues is a violation of the driver’s Second Amendment rights. …
Mr. Barrett would later be charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He was traveling from Kentucky, a state that doesn’t require a pistol permit. New York state requires a permit, however, and the driver didn’t have the required documentation, which resulted in the charge, said Jack Keller, a state police spokesman.
The “safe passage” provision of FOPA was supposed to fix this. But the skilled negotiate-awayers of the NRA missed a little something:
Notwithstanding any other provision of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof, any person who is not otherwise prohibited by this chapter from transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm shall be entitled to transport a firearm for any lawful purpose from any place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm to any other place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm if, during such transportation the firearm is unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition being transported is readily accessible or is directly accessible from the passenger compartment of such transporting vehicle: Provided, That in the case of a vehicle without a compartment separate from the driver’s compartment the firearm or ammunition shall be contained in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console.
Inserting that gutted the very — alleged — intention of 18 U.S. Code § 926A. Leaving out the to/from part would have made it real. You may be safe-passing through New York, so as it isn’t your destination; but they have a history of arresting thru-travelers as well. They lost some cases on that, so that situation may have improved.
Barrett is in a Catch-22. FOPA would only protect him if he was licensed in NY, but NY doesn’t issue licenses to nonresidents (unless their primary workplace is in the state). His only hope is that he was working a multi-state route, and can say this delivery was just one stop on his journey.
Thanks, NRA.