Driving while armed: the ACLU defends gun rights.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - American Civil Liberties Union

SINCE "THE constitutional right to bear arms is primarily a collective one," the American Civil Liberties Union has said, the extent to which the government should restrict gun ownership "is a question left open by the Constitution." In an apparent break with this longstanding position, the ACLU of Texas is defending the right of motorists to carry guns in their cars.

Texas law has long exempted people who have guns in their vehicles while "traveling" from prosecution for unlawful carrying of a weapon, an offense punishable by up to a year in jail. But the definition of traveling was fuzzy, leaving gun owners vulnerable to arrest, prosecution, and conviction, depending on how police officers, prosecutors, and judges decided to read and apply the law. In 2005, at the urging of the Texas ACLU as well as gun rights groups, the state legislature passed a law aimed at ensuring that, as the bill's author put it, "a law-abiding person should not fear arrest if they are transporting a concealed pistol in a motor vehicle."

But in a February 2007 report, the Texas ACLU, the Texas State Rifle Association, and the Texas Criminal Justice Association showed...