Last week Knife Rights submitted a comment on a notice of proposed rulemaking by the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau). The ATF proposed to amend Department of Justice regulations to clarify that, for purposes of transporting firearms interstate, any activities that are reasonably necessary to transportation such as staying overnight in temporary lodging, stopping for food, fuel, vehicle maintenance, an emergency, or medical treatment, or transiting between modes of transportation, are considered “transport” and thus protected by the Gun Control Act provision that addresses interstate transport of firearms (commonly referred to as the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act or FOPA). The proposed rule also addresses transporting ammunition and firearm accessories between states and the requirements for securing firearms during such transit.
As noted in the comment Knife Rights submitted (copied below), this is a concern for Knife Rights because our own Knife Owners’ Protection Act (KOPA) bills, originally conceived and authored by Knife Rights in 2010 and first introduced in 2013, are based on FOPA. Our KOPA bills in the House and Senate address many of the same issues as covered by the proposed rule. KOPA goes further to address other significant deficiencies in FOPA that ATF is unable to address in its rulemaking. But, these proposed rules would still be a huge improvement in FOPA and thus support our efforts to pass KOPA.
Text of the Comment Submitted:
RE: Docket: ATF-2026-0133 | Agency: Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Bureau (ATF)
On behalf of Knife Rights, Inc., a nationwide organization dedicated to providing knife owners with a voice in public policy, we strongly support ATF RIN 1140-AA73. We firmly believe that people traveling with ANY constitutionally protected arm must be able to safely and securely travel across the United States with that arm. This revision to the regulations governing section 926A of the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA, part of the Firearm Owner Protection Act or FOPA) is necessary to allow citizens to legally transport their protected firearms across state lines with the expectation of uniformity and reasonable enforcement in and of the federal law while doing so.
Numerous states including New Jersey and New York have blatantly violated the rights of arms owners for decades, including our members (knife owners), whose arms also deserve to be protected. To that end Knife Rights has worked with members of Congress to introduce the Knife Owners Protection Act (KOPA – H.R. 60 & S. 346) which would echo the protections in 926A of the GCA and goes further such that it also encompasses the same sort of commonsense exceptions proposed in this rulemaking. Although we certainly would like FOPA to apply to knives, and for that matter, all arms that are legal where the journey begins and ends, even if it doesn’t, we offer our full-throated support for RIN 1140-AA73 to model reasonable enforcement practice and will continue our work to pass and enact KOPA.
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