Former Republican governor of New York George Pataki has very gingerly placed his foot inside his very busy mouth. The Republican presidential candidate did an interview with a publication called “The Skimm” in which he discussed topics ranging from health care to gun control. On that latter topic, the New York governor seemed woefully ignorant of the existing gun laws in the United States. Specifically, he claimed that . . .
The second thing with federal gun laws, is that we need to do a better job of enforcing them. It is illegal to bring a gun across state lines, and yet it happens all the time, and I don’t understand why the federal government is not doing far more to prevent that.
I agree that existing gun laws should be better enforced before making up new laws, but the former Governor seems to not understand that merely bringing firearms across state lines is not, in fact, a crime. The NRA has a handy little FAQ on that very subject if the good Mr. Pataki (or some underpaid drone on his staff) would like some reading material.
There’s some support for his claim, at least in New York. Handguns are licensed by the Empire State, and you can’t bring your handgun into the state without one of those super special licenses. So you can see where Mr. Pataki might have gotten confused.
But as much as New York likes to think of itself as the center of the known universe, the fact is that the vast majority of the states (of which Mr. Pataki aspires to be Commander in Chief) don’t have any such restrictions. I carried clear across the United States from Virginia to Texas (via Wisconsin) and didn’t even have to unholster the gun. Let alone ask the ATF for permission to cross state lines.
If Mr. Pataki wants to seem knowledgeable about his solutions to “gun violence,” he might want to know at least some of the basic laws currently on the books. Like the Firearm Owners Protection Act.