How To Travel With A Firearm

Above, my Winchester 94 in its scabbard in my 1952 Jeep. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

As we are coming out of the coronavirus stay-at-home orders by various states, vacations away from home (along with resuming jobs) will be the uppermost in the minds of people.

Many vacationers will be traveling with a firearm or two and each state and conveyances have their own sets of rules.

America's 1st Freedom has an article on how to travel with a firearm.

They begin with:

Traveling with a firearm comes with legal risks. Those risks grow more complex when you cross state lines. While many states are gun-owner friendly, some states view simply having a firearm as criminal behavior. 

Nevertheless, if you carefully follow the rules, federal law does give you some protection. A provision of the federal law known as the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act (FOPA) protects those who are transporting firearms for lawful purposes from local restrictions that would otherwise prohibit someone from travelling through. Under the FOPA, notwithstanding any state or local law, a person is entitled to transport a firearm from where he or she may lawfully possess and/or carry the firearm to any other place in the U.S. where he or she may lawfully possess and/or carry it, if the gun is unloaded and locked out of reach. Basically, the FOPA protects travelers who carry firearms unloaded, locked in a case and stored in an area (such as a trunk or attached toolbox) where they are inaccessible from a vehicle’s passenger compartment and not visible from outside the vehicle. Any ammunition should be stored in a separate locked container. In vehicles without a trunk, the unloaded firearm must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console. 

Still, regardless of these federal protections, travelers should be aware that some state and local governments treat this federal provision as an “affirmative defense” that may only be raised after an arrest. This is particularly true in northeastern states like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and the District of Columbia, but also on the western seaboard in states like California, Oregon and Washington. 

All travelers would be well-advised to have copies of any applicable firearm licenses or permits, as well as copies or printouts from the relevant jurisdictions’ official publications or websites documenting pertinent provisions of law (including the FOPA itself) or reciprocity information. 

Despite the FOPA protections, travelling with a firearm can feel very complicated. Also, as state and local rules are constantly changing, this article should not be taken as legal advice, but only as a general guide—you must check the law in the jurisdictions you’ll be traveling to prior to leaving. 

To read the full article, go here.