Patrick Burk Was Trying To Do The Right Thing

By ANN Senior Correspondent Kevin "Hognose" O'Brien

A Personal Message From Hognose

We at Aero-News didn't know it was going to happen to Patrick Burk (whom we don't know personally). But we knew it was going to happen.

Burk, of course, is the 34-year-old man widely (if not entirely accurately) reported as a bodyguard of Michael Moore's, who was arrested at La Guardia Airport trying to travel with his unloaded gun checked safely in his luggage, as required by Federal law. As the article below explains, three local prosecuting attorneys, in Boston, Albany, and Queens County (where LGA and JFK are), have decided to concentrate their resources on this kind of non-violent technical violation. Is it even a violation? Not according to explicit Federal Law (Volkmer-McClure, 1986). But it is a violation of the de facto handgun bans in those cities -- and travelers risk jail by merely transiting those places.

Patrick Burk is not a Mafia button man, a Jamaican drug posse leader, or any of the other violent criminals the Queens County prosecutor couldn't be bothered with. He's a former Marine and an armed guard for the high-profile celebrity security firm of Gavin de Becker, which specializes in the sort of security demanded by Hollywood egos who are threatened by relentless paparazzi and unhinged stalkers. While Burk has guarded Moore among many others, and had very recently been guarding Moore, de Becker has been at pains to clarify that Burk is a professional bodyguard and a full-time employee of de Becker, and not of Moore.

Poor Burk was obeying the Federal law, and now finds himself arrested and charged -- exactly as I predicted in the article, below -- with a state felony; and according to New York gun-rights experts, he's "screwed." He's likely to lose his livelihood and his liberty, all because he was following explicit Federal law about people who legally travel with weapons. For the time being, anyone who travels with a gun, including professional security men, defense contractors, and soldiers, is advised to avoid New York City, Albany, and Boston, and anyone traveling to or through these cities should leave his or her gun at home; buy extra life insurance instead.

I wrote this story in July/August, 2004, and submitted it to Aero-News on August 1st. At the time, the story apparently didn't run (it was the middle of the Oshkosh crush). But the case of Patrick Burk brings this issue to the front burner -- and I feel guilty, because if the article had run, and Burk had read it (unlikely, I'll admit), he might have been saved a lot of hassle-- or worse. If you own a gun and travel you could run into the same risks Burk did, and your attempts to comply with Federal law could lead an ambitious prosecutor to try to make an example of you.

Gun rights groups are up in arms, you might say, about enforcement actions being taken in New York and Boston by local prosecutors. A Federal law from 1986 allows people who own guns to carry them, unloaded and locked in checked luggage, from one place where they're legal to another where they're legal, without getting busted for technical violations of gun laws enroute.

Anyway, who would think you are "carrying" a gun, locked in your Samsonite in the belly of the Boeing? What kind of knucklehead interprets a law like that?

The kind of knucklehead that's District Attorney in Albany County and Queens in New York, and Suffolk County in Massachusetts, that's who.

In an email alert from Jacob J. Rieper, Legislative Director, the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association warned their members: "They [the DAs] issued an order to arrest anyone coming through the airports with a handgun in their luggage, regardless if the handgun was being transported properly by FAA regulations."

If you do not have a state license, which is largely available only to state residents, you get to meet exciting and interesting people and share a cell with them.

Apparently the degree to which gun-owning travelers are "screwed" (NYSRPA's word) depends on whether they flew into New York, and then tried to fly out, or drove into New York, perhaps because a NY airport is the closest commercial airport, and they tried to fly out. (The situation in Boston is unclear, but rights groups say it's similar).

It also depends on what jurisdiction they're in. In Albany county, the traveler is charged with a low-level misdemeanor. In Queens county (where LGA is), he or she is charged with a felony. The gun or guns is confiscated and destroyed either way -- even if the traveler is acquitted. (Well, they are supposed to be confiscated and destroyed. Given New York law enforcement history, they are probably sold to the Mafia).

These same DAs usually give drug dealers and button men a pass on the gun charges... but it's a lot easier to make a case against some poor throg who declares his unloaded, secured weapon in compliance with Federal laws, than it is to make a case against an actual criminal. And case statistics are important to District Attorneys, a larval form of politician.

New York and Massachusetts have highly politicized handgun permitting processes, and neither state recognizes out of state permits (reciprocal recognition of permits is common in other states, and travelers may not be aware of these exceptions).

In the case of the person who has flown into New York with a gun, he has committed a technical violation of the state law (yes, by obeying the Federal one), and gun rights groups like NYSRPA and NRA can do little to help. On the people who drive to the airport and attempt to depart, whose case was clearly considered in the 1986 McClure-Volkmer Firearms Owners Protection Act, "even the Sheriff's office and TSA in Albany have argued over that with the DA, but he won't budge."

Does Rieper have any recommendations for the traveler passing through New York (or, presumably, Massachusetts)? Definitely: "UNLESS you are in possession of a VALID New York pistol license, DO NOT bring a handgun in your luggage to the airport, you will be charged."

Is this common? "This is not being done in any other state in the country except at Logan international in Boston... even at O'Hare in Illinois, if you come in from another state and meet FAA guidelines, they feel you are covered by FOPA, and off you go, a happy camper."

Aero-News readers who own guns would be well advised to leave them at home, or avoid traveling to, through or via Massachusetts and New York, lest their scalps wind up hanging from some DA's belt. This would apply equally whether they were GA or line pilots, crew, or passengers. Passengers need to check their routing. If you change planes or lines in New York or Boston, a legally transported handgun can land you in jail.

FMI: www.nysrpa.org