Apparently Frank Lautenberg doesn’t appreciate the recent happenings in Georgia in terms of airport carry.
Lautenberg’s Firearm-Free Airports Act calls for banning individuals from carrying firearms into U.S. commercial airports. “In the post-9/11 world, it simply defies common sense that it would be legal to carry a gun into an airport,” Lautenberg says.
Lautenberg’s measure would make an exception for law enforcement, security personnel and military personnel on active duty. Passengers would still be allowed to check unloaded firearms in a locked case in their luggage.
The bill is S.3366 and needless to say is entirely unacceptable. It would essentially create a ten year federal felony for carrying in a building in any airport or on any airfield. It’s hard to see how this wouldn’t affect private pilots, who currently have no restrictions on transportation or carry in their own planes because they typically don’t move through a sterile area before boarding their aircraft, and aren’t subject to security screening under FAA regulations.
But for General Aviation, this isn’t just about carry. This would ban private pilots from transporting firearms in their own planes at all, unless they fly out of an unregulated airport, because they do not fall under a proper exemption. So basically, if you had a buddy up in Alaska who has his own plane (not uncommon for Alaskans), it would be unlawful for him to fly you out to his place for a hunting trip, because there’s no way you or he can legally possess a firearm once you’re no longer part of a commercial flight. Anyone who did this and got caught would be facing a ten year federal felony.
Lautenberg is a snake when it comes to this stuff. It’s amazing how just about every piece of gun control legislation he introduces makes it easy to commit and accidental felony. That’s probably the idea, really.
UPDATE: Looking at federal definitions for airfield, this bans having a firearm at any airfield. Since and airfield that does not run commercial flights can’t check your firearm according to federal regulations, all firearms in these facilities would be made unlawful, so no transporting firearms in General Aviation at all.
UPDATE: I’d also note that it doesn’t make clear you’d be covered if you were leaving the airport with a firearm in checked luggage. Presumably it would, but how fast do you have to get out of the airport? What if you stop in the bathroom?
Ridiculous.
You know, they used to REQUIRE that all bush pilots have a gun in their plane before flying in Alaska? Too bad they got rid of that.
There’s a small private airfield near me, which is adjacent to state game lands. There’s no fence or anything else marking the boundary line between this airfield and the state game lands.
With this new Lautenberg legislation, I’m guessing that technically, if a hunter in these game lands I referred to above had to track a deer that ran off after getting shot, which deer sometimes will do, and the hunter crosses over the unmarked boundary line with his or her firearm slung over the shoulder, that same hunter will instantly become a potential convicted felon.
It would seem to me that Senator Lautenberg is hellbent on trying to make new federal gun laws which are in the same vein as his home state of New Jersey’s gun laws: draconian, hyper-technical, and placing an onus upon gun owners to abide by them at their own peril. (That’s the gist of what I have often heard Evan Nappen say regarding gun laws in New Jersey.)
That old snake in the grass needs to hurry up and die. Teddy kicked the bucket, Lautenberg you are next.
This as violent crime continues to decrease and there have been how many actual incidents involving lawful carriers inside airports?
Way to address the pressing issues of our time Frankie, heck’uva job.
I work to get rid of him every chance I can…
I’ve thought for a long time that the next terror attack could just be a bunch of simultaneous small arms/pipe bombs at the crowded security checkpoints. Luckily, this law from Sen Lautenberg will create a magical forcefield that keeps all unauthorized weapons out of the non-sterile portions of airports. It works just like the magic bubble around school zones where nobody is ever killed by guns, the magic bubble around Chicago which is known to be a safe and gun-free city, and the magic bubble around museums in DC which are widely known to be free of crazy old dudes trying to shoot the place.
On a more serious note, isn’t this why we have federalism? So that people in Kalifornia (which has NO explicit right to bear arms in its state constitution, which is the governing compact between the people and THEIR government) and New Jersey can live in police states if they want to, and so that people in Alaska can live like we want to? I don’t expect serious legislators in DC to understand bush planes or fly in hunting. I’d hope that they are busy with, you know, major national priorities, not researching and then regulating the minutiae of life in every little strange corner of the country. That’s why we have state and local governments. What works for us in AK may not work in other parts of the country for those people.