Steps to Legally Transport Firearms in New York City

For someone interested in recommended steps to legally transport firearms in New York City, they should speak to an attorney right away. A lawyer can give you strong advice regarding your options to legally travel with a gun.

Installing Firearm Compartments in Someone’s Car

A person is not required to have a specific firearm carrying compartment installed in their car. A person can get a normal, relatively small lockbox (if they have a pistol), or a gun case if they have a rifle or a shotgun. Most firearms vendors will also sell the lock compartments so that they can comply with the transportation rules. The law does not mandate that a person has specialty compartments installed in their car to transport firearms, just that the firearms are essentially not accessible, which means locked away.

How Does the Law Classify Transportation?

Public transportation is considered mass transit and law enforcement expects gunowners to learn common steps to legally transport firearms in New York. Any medium of travel that is funded by taxpayer dollars, e.g., the subway system, the bus system or the regional rail system (whether it is the Metro North going north-south or the Long Island railroad going east-west), taking a gun on public transportation is legal as determined by the permit that somebody has.

How Can Someone Legally Transport Firearms?

To legally transport a firearm, a person just needs the appropriate permit. There are five different types of permit that a person can get in New York ranging from the most restrictive (a firearm for a very limited use, in very limited places) to the general permissive carry permit in New York. Whatever permit a person has, they need to follow in terms of the rules regarding transportation.

If their permit does not allow them to transport a loaded gun in their car, they would need to unload the gun completely, put the gun in a lockbox, place the ammunition in a separate lockbox, and put them in different places in the car. The steps that a person needs to take are going to be determined by what the law specifically allows them to do with regards their particular permit.

Transportation Between States

When a person is going from one state to another, it is no longer New York law that is the controlling factor. Federal law governs the transportation of firearms from one state to another. In order to legally comply with federal law, the safest thing to do is to make sure that the gun is not loaded.

Both the ammunition and the firearm should have their own box. That is the safest and easiest way to make sure that an individual is complying with all federal firearms transportation regulations.

Obtaining Legal Transportation Permits

Part of the recommended steps to legally transport firearms in New York includes getting a permit. It requires a fairly permissive permit for a person to take a firearm on public transportation. If someone upstate takes some sort of public transportation from their home to their target-shooting facility, they have a permit which allows them to carry the gun.

Legally, someone could transport the firearm in a locked case with a separate locked case for the ammunition. In New York City, if someone is within the five boroughs and are using public transportation and have a firearm, it will almost always be unlawful.