OOIDA takes aim at California law regulating handgun ammo delivery

OOIDA in its lawsuit contends the law is preempted by federal law under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 or FAAAA.

The Trucker Staff

7/30/2010

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), along with two California gun groups and two of its members who transport ammunition, has taken aim at a Golden State law that in 2011 will begin regulating the delivery of handgun ammunition.

OOIDA in its lawsuit contends the law is preempted by federal law under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 or FAAAA, because it would regulate “the routes, rates and services utilized for shipping and delivery and sale of ammunition to a person in California” and “because the provision purports to regulate from whom and to whom such carriers may make a delivery of ammunition in Calfornia.”

They seek a “permanent injunction” from the new law being enforced on “motor carriers and air/ground intermodal carriers and otherwise legal recipients of ammunition.”

The California law mandates that handgun ammunition be labeled as such, but OOIDA noted in its filing that the federal label, Other Regulated Materials-Domestic (ORM-D), not only covers ammunition, but perfumes, aerosol cans, beer and other commodities, so truckers won’t know if they’re hauling ammunition or not and hence breaking the law.

The law further states that delivery or “transfer of ownership of handgun ammunition may only occur in fact-to-face transactions with the deliverer or transferor being provided bona fide evidence of identity from the purchaser or other transferee.”

OOIDA says that would place impossible demands on carriers and drivers, who would also have to get signatures from the packages’ addressee, perform an identification check in some instances and determine which calibers are handgun ammo, among other things.

The National Rifle Association, the Calguns Foundation, an educational and lobbying group, Erik Royce and Brandon Elias, OOIDA members and California-based truckers who haul ammunition in interstate commerce, and the Folsom Shooting Club, joined OOIDA in the suit.

The Trucker staff may be contacted to comment at editor@thetrucker.com.