The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the nation’s oldest and largest Second Amendment advocacy group, and the lion’s share of its mission is to ensure that laws and regulations do not infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms.
This is immediately obvious in the aftermath of the ATF’s proposed rule change, “Clarifying Interstate Transportation of Firearms Under the Gun Control Act.”
Even as gun rights supporters celebrated the potentially positive update, the NRA sought clarity on the proposal’s wording. The devil is in the details, and anti-gunners will not hesitate to exploit the slightest ambiguity.
Travelers deserve to move freely without official suppression of 2A protections
The clear goal of the proposal is to ensure that the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 (FOPA) protects gun rights as intended.
Traveling with legal weapons still causes trouble for law-abiding Americans moving from one jurisdiction to another—particularly in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The proposal applies to “staying in temporary lodging overnight, transiting between modes of transportation, stopping for food, fuel, vehicle maintenance, an emergency, picking up or discharging passengers,” and many other scenarios common in domestic travel.
Clarity is critical in shaping federal rules on gun rights
But the NRA noted a sticking point.
While the ATF proposal’s text does not specify that locations where FOPA protects the transportation of a firearm from one to another, the title includes “interstate.”
It may initially appear minor, but that distinction is critical.
There is no question that New York and New Jersey authorities would not hesitate to use such a technicality to suppress the right to travel with a firearm. The NRA implored the ATF to clarify that the rule “protects intrastate as well as interstate travel.”
The organization further asked the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division Second Amendment Section to determine whether the Port Authority respects the fundamental freedom to travel within the U.S. with a lawful weapon.
Even in the heady recent days of progress in reestablishing gun rights, having watchdogs to safeguard our freedoms is critical.
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