traveling through DC, MD, MA, NY

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mr.72

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Little help here...

I am going to be making a road trip from Austin to PA near Baltimore helping a friend move, and then it turns to family vacation where we intend to visit a few New England towns including DC, Boston, and NY.

Given that I am going to be passing through a dozen states and on the road for over a week with my family I don't want to leave the guns at home for the duration. However it looks like the MA, MD and NY laws are really impossible even if you are just transporting a gun in your car and not planning to stay in any of these states.

We will be lodging first in PA and then passing through MD and DC. Then we will be continuing to NY, MA, and down the coast. I anticipate we will spend one night in NYC and likely not stay in MA overnight but we will be spending most of a day in Boston.

So...

Is there any really workable solution for me?

At present I am trying to figure a way that we can leave the gun secured in a hotel in a friendly state while day-tripping to the other states. I think the odds are slim that I can talk my wife out of spending the night in NYC so that's my main sticking point. We're from TX so we're used to driving half the day to go somewhere :)
 
NYC has its own laws on firearms you don't want to be caught with a firearm especially a handgun in NYC. As fo Ma unless you have a non resident permit bring a firearm here is not a good idea and if your thinking "pepper spray" same rules apply.
Best idea leave the guns home,if caught the lawyer's fee and the likely hood of losing your rights to own a firearm forever just ain't worth the risk.
 
There is always recourse to FOPA 1986 which reads:

18 USC 926 - Sec. 926A. Interstate transportation of firearms

18 USC - U.S. Code - Title 18: Crimes and Criminal Procedure (January 2004)

Permanent Link: http://vlex.com/vid/19190852

Id. vLex: VLEX-19190852

Text:

Notwithstanding any other provision of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof, any person who is not otherwise prohibited by this chapter from transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm shall be entitled to transport a firearm for any lawful purpose from any place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm to any other place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm if, during such transportation the firearm is unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition being transported is readily accessible or is directly accessible from the passenger compartment of such transporting vehicle: Provided, That in the case of a vehicle without a compartment separate from the driver's compartment the firearm or ammunition shall be contained in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console.

However,spending the night in NYC is the big sticking point.Arranging to leave your firearms in a friendly state's motel/hotel is difficult since PA is the only really friendly state near NYC.
The only northeastern states that honor your Texas permit are Delaware,PA and of course Vermont,so FOPA is the only legal method in the other states.And what you are proposing is not of course ,a normal through journey under the Statutes regs.
 
Yeah I saw that. FOPA gets me through MD to PA, and would get me back again to TX. I am going to try real hard and talk my wife out of staying the night in NYC, however I think she finds staying in NYC to be part of the whole "event" of going to NYC. If it were totally up to me, we'd fly straight home from PA. I've already seen the East Coast. But at this point it's either take on an interminable feud with my wife or spend a fortune staying the night in NYC while possibly forcing myself to go through this whole vacation unarmed.

Sux either way!!
 
Your best recourse would be to keep the guns unloaded in a locked case in the trunk and make sure you don't do anything that would give a police officer probable cause for a search. The arguably unconsitutional laws in NY and MA are NOT on your side.

Just for the record, DC and NY are not part of New England. New England consists of the six states east of New York (ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, RI).
 
Possession of a firearm is legal in Connecticut, and the entire southwest corner of Connecticut is a suburb of NYC. You can legally get TO Connecticut with an unloaded and cased firearm, courtesy of the FOPA. You can have the gun in your hotel room for security while there. Find a way to secure the gun for a day and go from CT into NYC by train, then come back to CT for a second night, retrieve the gun, and then proceed under the FOPA. From southwest CT it's an easy drive to get you out of Injun territory and back into PA, either thru NYC and NJ (NJ state law, BTW, exactly mirrors FOPA regarding transport, not "carry"), or by heading a bit north to I-84, cutting across NY north of the Big Apple, and crossing directly into PA at Port Jervis/Milford.

You cannot carry in CT w/o a CT permit, and you can't take the gun with you into NYC. But at least you'll have it with you while driving.
 
NYC doesn't give a damn about FOPA 1986. You get caught there you will face some expensive legal battles.

DC cares about FOPA, oh but not this week, or maybe, who knows!

MD would be okay if it was unloaded and locked in a carry case in the trunk.

Sheesh, why not try and drive through NJ as well and have a full deck of worst anti states to drive through.

In short, leave the firearms home. That the best advice I can give (and boy does it gall me to say that!)
 
Possession of a firearm is legal in Connecticut, and the entire southwest corner of Connecticut is a suburb of NYC. You can legally get TO Connecticut with an unloaded and cased firearm, courtesy of the FOPA. You can have the gun in your hotel room for security while there. Find a way to secure the gun for a day and go from CT into NYC by train, then come back to CT for a second night, retrieve the gun, and then proceed under the FOPA. From southwest CT it's an easy drive to get you out of Injun territory and back into PA, either thru NYC and NJ (NJ state law, BTW, exactly mirrors FOPA regarding transport, not "carry"), or by heading a bit north to I-84, cutting across NY north of the Big Apple, and crossing directly into PA at Port Jervis/Milford.

You cannot carry in CT w/o a CT permit, and you can't take the gun with you into NYC. But at least you'll have it with you while driving.
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mr.72,Aguila Blanca's idea is by far the best.
It also saves you the nightmare of driving in Manhattan something no sane person really wants to do.
It's a win,win solution all around.Try to go for it.
 
I think I am going to go with Aguila Blanca's idea.

Now I just have to sell my wife on the idea that driving into NYC and staying there are not important, but CT will work as a substitute.

Looks like train fare could wind up being rather costly. It would be nice if we could pick one hotel and use it as a home base for both NYC and Boston. Probably cheaper to stay in a hotel in New Haven and go from there to Boston and NYC on a train than to stay in either NYC or Boston and pay for parking etc. anyway.

Just thinking about this makes me remember some of the things I really love most about Texas :)
 
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Now I just have to sell my wife on the idea that driving into NYC and staying there are not important, but CT will work as a substitute.
Click to expand...

Let me talk to your wife.I once lived in Manhatten!
But seriously ,this allows you to carry your firearms round trip almost 5,000 miles from Texas and back,except from the one or two day jaunt to NYC.
You're armed and protected for the vast portion of your journey.
Seems like a winner to me.Hopefully Mrs.72 agrees.:D
 
yeah it's funny... the topic came up tonight while we were discussing plans with the other family. She said, "are you planning to take a gun?", to which I said, "well yes, as long as you don't make me stay in NYC and it's ok to stay in New Haven". She said "cool!".

The lady never ceases to surprise me.
 
I used to ride Amtrak from DC and Philadelphia up to New England. It was pricey then and I'm sure it's worse now. However ...

From New Haven to NYC, I believe there's a commuter line (Metro North) running between Grand Central Station and New Haven that's considerably less expensive and more convenient than Amtrak (which puts you at Penn Station in NYC). Grand Central is more centrally located.

Whatever you spend on train fare, it would cost you four times that much to park a car in NYC for a day.
 
LoL! I'm definitely keeping Mrs.72! 16th anniversary is next month.

Thanks for the trains info. I will definitely look this up.
 
If you are passing through NY on an uninterrupted trip with the gun in a locked box in your trunk you are certainly within your rights and will have no problem.

If you stay overnight with it it's illegal and just not worth the risk.
 
Speedo66 said:
If you are passing through NY on an uninterrupted trip with the gun in a locked box in your trunk you are certainly within your rights and will have no problem.
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Correction: You will be within your rights. In the case of NYC, that does NOT in any way ensure that he will have no problem.

In any event, problems or not, passing through does not allow them to partake of any of the things that some people think makes it worth going into NYC. In terms of the FOPA, "traveling" means "through," not "to." It does not require an overnight stay to turn "through" into "to." Once you stop and begin visiting shops, galleries, museums, landmarks, etc, you are clearly not traveling through. You have goe "to" NYC.
 
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