Jim March writes:

Subject: Exactly what this Federal law means.

First thing to understand is that this law wasn't "written for truckers". It's a much more general thing, originally known as the Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA) of 1986.

That law was a compromise: the "anti gun" side got a ban on new fully-automatic guns being released onto the (heavily restricted/regulated) civilian market.

In exchange, gun owners received protection when traveling with guns through a state that is heavily anti-gun.

Here's how it works.

You're a Virginia resident who legally owns a gun. You're going to go on a hunting trip in Maine. To get there, you're going to drive through New York (no choice about it).

Prior to FOPA this was impossible. You can't possess a gun AT ALL in New York unless it's registered to you after six months to a year of paperwork and BS.

FOPA says that as long as you're legal under state law at your points of departure and arrival, meaning in this case Virginia and Maine, New York (and Massachusetts if you take the southern route) cannot screw with you as long as the gun isn't set up for immediate defense in the non-gun-friendly states along the way. In this case, just before hitting the NY border you need to unload your stuff and lock it away good, and the glove compartment isn't good enough. You basically need to make it "not readily available" while passing through the "bad states" - but you can haul it out again once you're back in "Free America" (which is now, thank God, most of the US).

FOPA isn't a restriction, it's a protection.

A lot of the time you don't need FOPA. Fr'instance, you're a trucker based in Phoenix AZ, you're making a run to Salt Lake City UT. You have an AZ CCW permit (Carry Concealed Weapons), and since UT recognizes AZ permits, you can be completely strapped the whole trip - you don't need FOPA protection as neither state is hostile. Make a similar run to, say, WA state, and if you pass through California you need to lock it up while there and FOPA keeps California cops off your back.

As an aside: it also applies when traveling in whole or in part by air. Say you're flying to a pro-gun state but bad weather diverts you to Chicago for a night. You're still OK as long as it's unloaded, locked in the proper luggage allowed under checked baggage rules, etc. Or you're going hunting in Vermont, you fly into a New York airport with a piece in checked baggage, you then rent a car and drive to Vermont, FOPA still applies as a ban on New York law enforcement screwing with you so long as you follow the FOPA rules while in NY. And yeah, it took a couple of Federal civil rights lawsuits to get them under control.

Finally, there is NO Federal law saying "truckers get disarmed no matter what". There's apparently a lot of rumors going around that that's the case, likely something a lot of truck company managers like to pass off as gospel, but it's 100% BS. Truckers operate under the same state laws as anybody else and probably get protected by FOPA more than most when they have to travel through "People's Republik" states...