HotMetal said:
It's a rhetorical question, but how can we have an EXISTING federal law and it be ignored by some? Then hope that a second federal law is passed to enforce the first!
The proposed new law isn't intended to enforce the first, it's intended to fix the first. If you read the Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA), it's clear that it was rushed together at the last minute by someone or someones who had good intentions but didn't think beyond the end of their nose. Irrespective of what the legislative intent was, the actual language is clearly based on travel by personal automobile, and it doesn't take into account long trips.
For example, as mention in the NRA article, overnight stops. It's possible to drive from New York to Florida without stopping to sleep for a night -- but it's not wise. It's certainly not possible to do it without stopping for gasoline, rest room use, and food. Nothing in the existing FOPA specifically says such actions are illegal, but nothing says they're legal, either. Suppose you do stop for a night at a motel just off the interstate. Your guns and ammo are locked up in the trunk of your car, in accordance with the law. What do you do with them while you're sleeping? If you leave them in the car, they could be stolen. If you bring them into the motel room, you may be violating some obscure state law.
Look what happened to Greg Revell. He was flying from somewhere (Utah?) to his home in Pennsylvania, with a change of planes at Newark (NJ) airport. His arriving flight was late, he missed the connection, and he had to spend the night in a hotel. An AIRPORT hotel, on the grounds of the airport. His luggage was there, so he took his luggage, which contained a properly declared firearm, to the hotel room rather than leave it on the carousel overnight. The next morning, when he tried to follow the laws and declare the firearm for the next leg of his trip, the ticket agent called a cop, and Mr. Revell was arrested because he didn't have a NJ permit to possess a firearm.
That's the sort of situation that the FOPA certainly was intended to cover, but because it isn't specifically and explicitly addressed, anti-gun jurisdictions ignore the FOPA and apply their draconian local laws to people who are legitimately engaged in interstate travel. That's what needs to be fixed. And the fix also needs to make it clear that the FOPA applies not only to private automobiles but also to air travel, rail travel, and bus travel. It also has to make it clear that we are not required to drive non-stop from Eastport, Maine, to San Diego, California, if we want to comply with the law.
