Biker and Motorcycle Related Legal Articles

First off, I am not giving legal advice by this article. You should always check with a lawyer in your respective State on the issue of transporting a gun on a motorcycle or in another type of vehicle. If in doubt, call a lawyer!

Generally Bikers and Motorcyclist are allowed by law to transport a Gun on their motorcycle just like people in Cars or Cagers. I do not want to confuse the issue of transporting a gun, and carrying a gun, they are two different things.

Carrying a gun means that you have it on your person. This article does not cover carrying a gun on your person. The purpose of this article is to discuss the legality of transporting a gun on your motorcycle, especially when crossing State Lines.

There are generally two areas of law dealing with transporting guns in vehicles; Federal, and State Law. The vast majority of States will NOT let you transport a loaded gun in any type of vehicle without a permit, and MOST States have certain restrictions that are applicable to transporting guns in vehicles.

Federal Law generally states that; Notwithstanding any other provision of any law or any rule or regulation of a State or any political subdivision thereof, any person who is not otherwise prohibited by this chapter from transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm shall be entitled to transport a firearm for any lawful purpose from any place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm to any other place where he may lawfully possess and carry such firearm if, during such transportation the firearm is unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition being transported is readily accessible or is directly accessible from the passenger compartment of such transporting vehicle: Provided, That in the case of a vehicle without a compartment separate from the driver’s
compartment the firearm or ammunition shall be contained in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console. Code of Federal Regulations Title 18, Part I, Chapter 44, § 926a.

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I received the following email from a Biker Law Blog Reader named Patrick. I will let the email speak for itself because it is self explanatory. I have not edited it and it is in Patrick’s own words. Here it is……..

I have some information for you. There is a letter out from the EPA dated 7/25/2006. The letter is CISD-06-15 (MC). This is geared to builders of custom bikes where the builder builds 300 units or less. These bikes like Big Bear choppers, Big dog choppers meet all 2007 EPA rules. They have a stamp on the frame that states that they meet all EPA federal laws. I have a friend that built a 2007 EPA compliant chopper. The bike came with a Suppertrapp exhaust that is EPA compliant. The exhaust has no EPA stamp or marker plate. Big Dog chopper's have Vance & Hines Q series exhaust that is EPA compliant, no EPA stamp or marker plate. The bikes I am talking about meet all federal EPA rules, but you can't ride or have them in Denver. That’s crazy. Patrick

What Patrick is saying is that there are EPA compliant motorcycles that do not have EPA stamps on the pipes. I think that Patrick may have found a way for the ordinance to be legally challenged as unduly broad. Do we have a Colorado Biker Lawyer who will step up to the plate to challenge this new ordinance in Court?

Thanks for the email Patrick.

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2007

**** 6/10/07 Update: SEE BELOW

*** 6/11/06 Update: SEE BELOW

The City of Denver, Colorado has enacted a municipal ordinance that will require all motorcycles in the city to have a Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sound-certification label on the exhaust systems of all motorcycles.

This modification of Denver’s existing sound law will “retro-actively” apply to all motorcycles manufactured since 1982, which was the first year EPA required all motorcycles sold in the United States to comply with EPA sound regulations.

This new ordinance is scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2007. Any violators of the new ordinance would have two weeks to prove to a Judge that they have fixed the problem or they will be forced to pay a fine of $500.00.

Previously Denver had a noise ordinance based upon maximum decibels or sound levels, which set a limit of 80 decibels at 25 feet.

For all intents and purposes, this new ordinance will force all motorcyclists to use only stock pipes on their motorcycles, because most of the after market pipes made for motorcycles do not have the EPA sound certification label on the pipes.

The marks the first time that I know of where a major United States City has adopted, and will be enforcing “Federal Laws” which are discriminatory against bikers and motorcyclist.

What is disturbing is that this new ordinance is only geared towards motorcycles and not other vehicles such as big rig trucks and cars, which are not required to have strictly stock exhaust systems on them. It does appear that Denver, Colorado is exclusively discriminating against bikers and motorcyclist.

*** 6/11/06 Update: A closer look at this ordinance has brought to light another sinister issue. Now law enforcement in Denver, Colorado will be able to willy nilly pull over any biker or motorcycle on a whim just to check their exhaust pipes. Basically riding a motorcycle in Denver, Colorado will make all bikers and motorcyclist subject to arbitrary stops and harassment by law enforcement. Our freedoms are slipping away from us people.

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I have written many articles in the Biker Law Blog about what you should do after a motorcycle injury accident, selecting a lawyer, selecting the right lawyer, etc.

You can find all of my articles by using the search function on the upper right sidebar of the Blog, scrolling through all of the articles, or by looking at the right sidebar and scrolling down to Biker Laws, and then selecting general legal. I highly suggest that after you read this article on Motorcycle Injury Accidents, that you read through the Blog to educate yourself.

With that being said, the title of this article is “You were just involved in a Motorcycle Injury Accident; Now What? The title of the article speaks for itself.

I receive many calls from Bikers that are injured in Motorcycle accidents, and to be quite frank, it sometimes blows my mind, how stupid some people can be; Let me explain.

What would you do if you just had your received a gunshot wound? You would probably call 911 if you could, or transport yourself to a hospital, right?

In the case of a motorcycle injury accident, it would probably be safe to say that the smart thing to do after a motorcycle injury accident would be to call 911, or get transported to a hospital as soon as possible to get checked out, right? Obviously if the accident is severe enough other people will do this for you. I cannot tell you how many calls I get from guys who just did a swan dive over their handlebars, and just go home rather than go to the emergency room to get checked out. One guy actually had a punctured lung and had he not followed my advice to immediately go to the emergency room he could have died.

Let’s face it, if you are having trouble breathing, you cannot bend your knees, you have road rash, YOU NEED MEDICAL TREATMENT

What is the second thing you should do after a motorcycle injury accident? Well if you are smart either you or a loved one would call a competent motorcycle injury lawyer to deal with the legal issues involved in your injury accident, right?

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