Before you drive across state lines with a gun, run this checklist

Pilots do not take off on vibes. Before every flight they run a checklist, out loud, even when they have done it ten thousand times, because the day they skip it is the day the plane remembers. Driving across state lines with a firearm deserves the same respect. You are carrying a lawful possession through a patchwork of fifty legal systems, a few of which would be delighted to turn your road trip into a criminal case, and the only thing standing between you and them is a single paragraph of federal law.

That paragraph is 18 U.S.C. 926A, the safe passage provision that came out of the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act, whose story is told in How the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act passed with a machine gun ban. It is a good law and a narrow one. It protects you only if you meet every condition, and plenty of honest travelers fall off the edge of it by stopping too long, packing the gun wrong, or assuming that a carry permit in one state means something in the next. This post is the checklist. Print it, read it twice before a trip, and check your destination's law yourself. This is general information, not legal advice.

What the law says, in plain English

Here is the substance of section 926A. A person who is not otherwise prohibited from transporting, shipping or receiving a firearm is entitled to transport a firearm for any lawful purpose from any place where he may lawfully possess and carry it to any other place where he may lawfully possess and carry it, notwithstanding any state or local law to the contrary, if during the trip two things are true. 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 the vehicle. If the vehicle has no separate compartment from the driver's, as in a pickup truck or an SUV, the firearm and ammunition must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or the console.

Three phrases do all the work: both ends, unloaded, and not accessible. Everything below is a way of making sure you meet them.

Group one: are you eligible to transport at all?

The protection only covers a person who is not prohibited from having a firearm in the first place. Check these before anything else.

• You are not a prohibited person under federal law. The federal categories include felony convictions, certain domestic violence convictions and restraining orders, and unlawful drug use. Reason: if you are prohibited, safe passage does not exist for you. See how to buy your first firearm lawfully from the counter to the car for the list.
• You are not prohibited under the law of the state you are in at either end. Reason: the statute protects a person "not otherwise prohibited by this chapter," and your home state's own prohibitions still apply to you.
• The trip is for a lawful purpose. Hunting, a competition, a move, a range visit, a repair, a trip to a dealer: all lawful purposes. Reason: the statute says "any lawful purpose," but if you are doing something unlawful, you have lost the cover it provides.

Group two: do you have the right at both ends?

The word "both" matters because the protection is a bridge, and a bridge needs two banks.

• You may lawfully possess and carry the firearm where you start. That means the law of your starting point lets you have it, for example in your home. Reason: the statute begins with "any place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm."
• You may lawfully possess and carry it where you are going. A hunting camp, your daughter's house, a range, a competition site. If your destination state bans the particular firearm, or a feature on it, or the magazine, your lawful destination may not exist. Reason: a trip to a place where possession is unlawful gets no protection from the statute. Read the destination state's law before you pack, and the details of how states regulate possession and carrying are in four ways a state can regulate carrying a gun, side by side.
• Your carry permit is not the thing protecting you. Safe passage is not reciprocity. A permit from your home state might be honored where you are going, or it might not, and that is a separate legal question covered in why your carry permit works in some states and fails in others. Reason: safe passage covers transporting an unloaded, inaccessible firearm, not carrying one on your belt.

Group three: how should you pack it?

This is where most honest travelers make mistakes. Think of three layers of separation.

• Unload the firearm completely. Chamber empty, magazine out, nothing left in the gun. Reason: the statute requires it unloaded, and a loaded gun is outside the protection.
• Put the gun in a locked case. A hard-sided case with a real lock is the standard for good reason, though the statute strictly requires a locked container only when the vehicle has no separate compartment. Reason: a case is the cheapest way to satisfy "not readily accessible," and it protects the gun from theft and from curious hands.
• Store the ammunition separately and out of reach. The statute does not say "in a separate container," only that ammunition must not be readily or directly accessible from the passenger compartment, but a separate locked container in the trunk is the clean way to meet it. Reason: a box of rounds on the back seat next to an unloaded gun is the kind of fact a hostile officer will point to.
• Use the trunk if you have one. In a sedan, the trunk is by definition outside the passenger compartment. Reason: distance is the best proof of inaccessibility.
• In a vehicle without a trunk, lock it up. An SUV, hatchback or pickup truck cab has no separate compartment. Use a locked container, and not the glove compartment or the center console, which the statute specifically excludes. Reason: those two are named in the text and will not do.
• Think about the magazines. The statute mentions firearms and ammunition. It does not clearly mention magazines or accessories, and some states regulate those on their own. If your magazines hold more than your destination or a state along the way allows, check that law. Reason: a ban on a magazine is a different charge from one on a gun, and safe passage may not reach it.

Group four: how do you drive it?

Packing is half the job. The other half is conduct on the road.

• Keep the trip continuous. Drive through. Do not take a side trip to a city that bans what you carry. Reason: the protection covers transport from one lawful place to another, not a stay in between.
• Avoid long stops in hostile states. Gas, food and a rest stop are ordinary parts of travel. An overnight hotel stay, a night with a friend, a day of sightseeing in a state where you cannot lawfully possess the gun is a different story. Reason: courts have read the word "transport" narrowly, and some federal appeals courts have rejected travelers who had effectively stopped rather than passed through. I would rather you plan the route than test the question in a courtroom.
• If you must overnight, plan it. Consider a route that avoids the toughest states, or a stop in a state where you may lawfully keep the gun in your lodging. If a hotel is unavoidable, ask the property about its policy and check the law in that state. Reason: the lodging is where most of the gray area lives.
• Don't announce it. At a traffic stop or a checkpoint, you are not required to volunteer anything beyond what the law demands in your state. If an officer asks, answer truthfully, stay calm, keep your hands where he can see them, and say where the gun is and that it is unloaded and locked. Reason: a calm, clear answer that you are following the federal safe-passage provision is the best thing you can say.
• Don't consent to a search you aren't required to. You may politely decline a search without a warrant or probable cause. Do not be hostile about it. Reason: the Fourth Amendment protects you, and the traffic stop is not the place to argue it.

Group five: what about planes and trains?

Safe passage under 926A was written with cars in mind but it does protect "transport" by any means, and the practical rules for commercial travel come from the carriers and the Transportation Security Administration.

• By air, firearms go in checked baggage only. Unloaded, in a hard-sided case that is locked, declared to the airline at the counter, with ammunition packed in a proper container. Reason: federal regulations require it, and the TSA will find an undeclared gun at the checkpoint.
• Keep the key or combination yourself. Reason: airlines and screeners may need to inspect, and you are responsible for the case.
• Mind the connecting airports. A layover or a missed connection can force you to claim your bag in a state where you did not plan to be. Reason: the person who retrieves a bag in a strict state, with the gun in it, is the person the prosecutors in that state find most interesting. Courts have not been generous to travelers caught in that situation, so book direct flights where you can.
• Check the carrier's own policy. Trains, buses and ferries each have their own rules, and some do not carry firearms at all. Reason: the company's rule applies on top of federal law.

Group six: where to verify, and when

A checklist is only as good as its last update. Laws change, and the websites that summarize them lag.

• Read the statute itself. The state legislature's site publishes it, and the text of 18 U.S.C. 926A is on the House Office of the Law Revision Counsel's website. Reason: the statute, not a summary, is what a judge will read.
• Check the state attorney general's or state police page. Many publish plain-language guidance for visitors. Reason: it tells you how the people who enforce the law read it.
• Call or write. If it is unclear, ask the state police in the state you plan to visit. Keep a note of who told you what and when. Reason: a record that you made an honest inquiry is useful if something goes wrong.
• Consult a firearms attorney before a long trip with an unusual route. Reason: it's cheap insurance against an expensive mistake.
• Re-check before every trip. Do not rely on the last time. Reason: legislatures meet every year.

The five most common ways travelers fall off the protection

1. A loaded gun, or a loaded magazine in the case. The statute says unloaded, and a magazine with rounds in it sitting next to the gun invites an argument.
2. A gun in the glove compartment or console. The text says locked container "other than" those.
3. Ammunition within reach. The second condition applies to the ammunition as well as the firearm.
4. A stop that turns into a stay. The further a trip drifts from continuous travel, the weaker the claim.
5. No lawful right at the destination. The bridge needs both banks.

Why the law needs to exist

A last word about why this provision matters, because I think it is one of the most important and least understood pieces of federal firearms law. Imagine a family driving from Pennsylvania to a hunting camp in another state, through a state with strict laws. Without safe passage, a trip like that would require checking the law of every state on the route, and in a few places a good-faith traveler could be arrested for the very thing that is perfectly lawful at both ends. That's a hypothetical, but the problem was real in the 1980s and is why Congress acted. The Constitution does not stop at the state line, and a right you lose when you cross a river is not much of a right. Section 926A is a modest protection, but modest is what Congress could pass, and it covers a lot of ordinary people.

It is also why you owe it to the next traveler to follow the rules exactly. Every careless stop that ends in an arrest is an argument against the law.

The bottom line

• Safe passage under 18 U.S.C. 926A protects a lawful owner moving a firearm from a place where he may possess it to another such place, but only if the gun is unloaded and neither it nor the ammunition is readily accessible from the passenger compartment.
• Pack it as if a skeptical officer will inspect it: unloaded, locked in a case, ammunition separate, in the trunk, or in a locked container that is not the glove box or console.
• Keep the trip continuous. Overnight stays and sightseeing in a strict state can take you outside the protection.
• A carry permit is a different question from safe passage. Check reciprocity separately.
• Verify every state on your route and your destination by reading the statute, and re-check before each trip.