So... A 39-yr old nurse from TN, dedicated to saving lives, and with no criminal history decides to travel thru NYNY on way to a job interview. Perhaps thinking (mistakenly) that the Interstate Reciprocity bill recently passed by Congress had already become law, she carries her .32 with her along with the valid TN CCW. She and her husband decide to stop at the 9/11 memorial to pay their respects. Upon seeing the "no guns" sign, she approaches the site security post and asks the LEO's stationed there how to properly check her firearm so she can visit the site. She is promptly arrested, charged with a felony, and faces a minimum of 3 & 1/2 years of prison as Bloomberg's prosecutors have pledged to throw the book at her. In their eyes, she is an example of "the terror of illegal Southern guns invading NYNY."

Meredith Graves will probably loose her legal battle in NYNY and will likely loose her right to ever own a gun again. I can't imagine she will pass a background check if she has a NY felony firearms conviction on her record.

This serves as a reminder to all to use caution when traveling - especially in places like NY, NJ, MA, MD, CA, IL, DC (or to completely avoid those locales if at all possible), encourage the Senate to take up HR 822 to move it forward in becoming law, renew NRA memberships when due, and to stay abreast of changes in state/local laws of areas one regularly visits.

Poor gal. Hopefully things will shake out OK for her in the end.

Not to take anything away from her plight, but seriously how naive do you have to be to try and check your personal weapon with the NYPD guard on duty at the 9/11 memorial... Did she really think that the guard was there to babysit her firearm, like a coat-check girl at a fancy restaurant?

I don't know...maybe that's how it works in Tennessee, but sheesh!

I don't have my CCW permit yet, still waiting for mine to show up in the mail here in Wisconsin. I know when I do any interstate travel with my CCW, I will before I leave check to see what the laws are of the states I will be traveling through. I can't believe any responsible permit holder would not do the same and especially with the states on the left coast or the northeastern states. Usconcealedcarry.com has a great a little wizard that allows you to enter the permits you have and will tell you what states you are good to carry in. You can print it out a card that you can carry with you. Better yet for those of you that have a smart phone. I have the CCW app for my Android phone. It will give you the states you can carry in for the permits you hold. It will tell you if you have to notify LEOs, where you can and can't carry, transporting laws, etc. As with anything some information may be incorrect so you might want to check with each state's website CCW laws to be safe. Still a great little app though.

I'll post the same thing in this thread I posted in one above. This woman makes stupid people look good!

Pecos

That's the hard way to find out that gun laws in the USA are not uniform throughout the states, that's for sure.

But in her defense, imagine if we treated our other rights like this.

For instance, no woman's suffrage in, say, MA.

Or no free press in NJ.

No 5th amendment rights in IL.

It may not have occurred to her that the Constitution could be stomped on like this by a state and the federal government would do nothing to stop it.

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MSSA Life Member

Thanks for tip. I just downloaded one for my iPhone. Excellent info in there. I can use my NC permit to some degree in 36 states so there is no way I'll know every law. I know it is my responsibility and not some $0.99 app but it's nice to have the help.

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Who is John Galt?

She made a number of mistakes, for sure. Not the least of which was not knowing the local and state laws. But...
She didn't "try and check her personal weapon with the NYPD guard on duty". Nor did she think, or expect, the guard was there to "babysit" her firearm. I suggest you get all the facts before posting sarcastic remarks and belittling someone. And no, that isn't the way it works in TN. sheesh!
Ok, I'll stop now. Before I say something I shouldn't.

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Misty

The one salient fact that we need to know about this story is: this woman carried a firearm into a city where she had no legal right. Right or wrong, reasonable or unreasonable the law in NYC is the law. She disobeyed that law. She had the obligation to know that law. I have no sympathy.

Pecos

It seems to me that the Federal gov't has done most of the stomping lately.

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Sure you did

Although she obviously shouldn't have been carrying in NYC. I think the real problem is the FOPA is badly written.
Most flights out of this area are in NY airports. Since I live in NJ, I couldn't legaly transport a firearm from those airports. Also, stopping for the night while driving thru the anti-gun states is also cause for procecution.

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Pete.

For those who do travel through states other than their own a good resource can be Gun Forums dedicated to a specific state. My primary sources are the State Police web-sites or Attorney General's sites but I've found that when it comes to basic laws and any recent changes to them the Gun Forums can be quite helpful. I always try and confirm anything I read on thos sites through official sources, after all it is the inter-net.

I'll give one example how one of these Gun Forums helped me. We have taken a lot of trips to Virginia and at one time you couldn't carry concealed in restaurants. I learned that the law had changed through a Virginia Gun Forum and now restaurant carry is allowed, that is unless it changed again. We haven't been there for a few years so I haven't checked their current laws lately.

The Federal Govt. has the potential and power to do a lot of stomping on gun rights, but on a day-to-day basis, the states are our biggest threat--some more than others. I just thank God i'm in Georgia, and that we have a proactive organization like GCO to fight for our rights.

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Georgia On My Mind