U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- A group of small business truckers has sent an email to the Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. The email asks that, as part of the national emergency involving the Chinese virus, the federal government declare the Second Amendment overrides state law and federal regulation forbidding truckers from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
From transportationnation.com:
The 15,000-member SBTC is calling on federal authorities to preempt state and local laws regarding the right to carry a firearm.
Therefore, in accordance with the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, we hereby request the U.S. Department of Transportation please issue a preemption order nullifying any and all state and local laws that restrict truck drivers from carrying firearms across state lines throughout America in order to enable them to protect themselves and their cargo as they engage in interstate commerce.
As this is now a matter of life and death, please issue same forthwith.
“The SBTC through its TRUCKER LIVES MATTER campaign has sought the unfettered ability of drivers to carry firearms for self protection nationwide since its inception in 2014,” Lamb tells Transportation Nation Network (TNN). “We have pointed to Department of Labor statistics that show the unusually high rates of murders on the road for workers in interstate transportation.”
This is a valid argument. It is vital that trucks keep delivering everything society needs to keep operating during the emergency. During social unrest, there will always be an element attempting to take advantage of the situation.
One argument between those who want the population disarmed and those who believe the population should have easy access to arms is a small scale, utilitarian one.
People who are voluntarily unarmed have a psychological interest in promoting the idea that having a gun makes a person less safe, and that having a gun has no utility in preventing crime. It reassures them they have made the correct decision by deciding to be unarmed.
It is a difficult argument to make rationally persuasive. Weapons would not exist if they did not provide the possessor with an advantage over the disarmed.
The fallback position, for those who wish the population to be disarmed, is to claim only intensely trained and supervised individual, such as, supposedly, police and military personnel, can gain benefit from being armed.
However, people who have passed through the legal hoops required to obtain carry permits, commit far fewer crimes than do the police. Police tend to train more with firearms than do most military (as difficult as that is to believe).
Commercial truckers go through a similar background check process as do most concealed carry permit holders. Truckers are especially vulnerable to violent crime because of their vocation.
It would be a good test case for the Trump Administration to declare, during this emergency, the exercise of Second Amendment rights by commercial truckers (whose licenses are federally supervised) overrides state powers to regulate firearms. This argument would be bolstered by the power of the federal government to regulate interstate commerce, as granted by the Constitution.
Those who have lived by the abuse of the interstate commerce clause for decades would be feeling the other side of the blade.
It would be a good policy. It would be good politics.
It would be immediately challenged in court. It would send a good message to the appeals courts, and the Supreme Court.
It combines utility, emergency powers, the Second Amendment and the Commerce Clause. It would be nearly irresistible for activist district court judges. It would be difficult for the appellate courts to ignore. Such a combination would be very difficult for the current Supreme Court to ignore.
It would not be perfect. Perfect is the enemy of the good, because, those who insist on perfect prevent the good from ever happening.
Such an emergency proclamation would be a double-edged dagger pointed at the heart of the arguments against the exercise of Second Amendment rights.
Will it happen? I suspect not. It is not on the radar of the Trump administration.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
You should NEVER lose your 2ND Amendment rights just because you crossing into another state! I work on the road traveling from Jobsite to Jobsite as an engineer. I HATE having to look up if I can carry a firearm or not and all the other BS that goes into carrying a firearm in a different state.
Truckers are the lifeblood of the nation. They need to be protected at all costs.
My father drove a truck for a few years when we were kids. He worked for Mayflower at first and then I assume for himself or maybe some shipping company upstate NY. When he worked for Mayflower they were sent down and he acquired a NYS Carry Permit, we lived on Long Island at the time. His permit was good for life, we had his permit but seem to have misplaced it. Even back then, the 1950’s, you could not bring an unregistered firearm into NYC, his permit was not recognized there either. I do know that he had his… Read more »
This isn’t just about each state but, cities, counties etc. Also, most company’s policies are not allowing drivers to be armed or they will be terminated. Drivers home away from is their rigs and it’s unconscionable how truckers or anyone else is deprived of their natural rights to self defense. They all need repealed. Short story, I was held up at gun point in the Bronx NY, luck would have it, NYPD comes around the corner, the thugs ran, Waved over the NYPD, told them I was just held up with guys with guns but they didn’t get anything before… Read more »
It really sucks to be out of Federally Mandated driving hours and have to pull off an exit ramp in the middle of NOWHERE, and sit there for a Federally Mandated 10 HOURS before we can drive again. ALL trucks now have Federally Mandated ELD’s in the cab, that are uplinked through Cell Towers and Satellite. Theses Electronic Logging Devices monitor EVERYTHING we do, they are always ON. They are tied into the trucks 100+ computer modules. The company Brass and the Feds can access info anytime. They know your exact location, direction, and speed, if your seatbelt is on,… Read more »
I disagree with the entire premise that one class of people’s lives are more important than another. With no disrespect intended, trucker’s lives are no more important than mine or my families. What’s good for one is good for all.
I’ve maintained for a long time that if you truly want to restore freedom repeal ALL restrictions on arms in this country. Yes, all, every single one of them and simply enforce the laws we have against rape, robbery, assault and murder with or without any weapon. To do otherwise simply invites class warfare.