The background check ‘compromise’ put forth by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) sets new rules for how individuals must transport firearms if taking them from one place to another.
These new rules are on top of expanding background checks to cover every sale at a gun show, events on the lawn outside the building where a gun show is being held, newspaper and magazine “gun for sale” advertisements, and online “gun for sale” announcements.
Regarding transportation, Sec. 128 of the Manchin-Toomey “compromise” says persons who are not knowingly transporting a firearm for use in a crime nor transporting it into a situation where a crime may be committed, shall be “entitled” to “transport a firearm in a vehicle” if:
The firearm is not directly accessible from the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle; or if the motor vehicle is without a compartment separate from the passenger compartment, the firearm is in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console, or secured by a secure gun storage or safety device, or if the transportation is by other means, the firearm is in a locked container or secured by a secure gun storage or safety device.
This paragraph represents about one/eighth of one page of the 49 pages of legislation that make up the Manchin-Toomey “compromise.” Interwoven with these rules are instructions for keeping firearms and ammunition separate while in transport.
The bill contains allowances for state ordinances on transport to preempt these laws to some degree, but the fact that these things are being passed as a “compromise” in legislation ostensibly aimed at preventing the kind of gun violence we saw at Newtown is ludicrous.
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