Flying with a handgun.........

[rdb241]

A friend of mine I used to work with, just took a trip to New Mexico and this is what he wrote on Facebook what he had to go through to get the handgun on the flight.

Traveling with a handgun was interesting. You have to put it in a hard sided locked TSA approved case. Tell the agent when checking your suitcase there is an unloaded firearm in the suitcase. They have you open the case and they inspect the contents. The gun and mag have to be separate and unload, the ammo has to been in a retail type box that keeps them separate and not touching. Then you sign two docs stating that it is unloaded. Then you proceed to a TSA agent that removes everything from your suitcase and then asks you to unlock the gun case. They inspect it and then repack you suitcase and send it off to be loaded on the plane. Once you arrive you go to a TSA baggage claim area were you show ID and they give you the suitcase that is zip tied close with very large zip ties. Give yourself an extra 30 mins prior to boarding as it does take some time.

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[2thdrglock]

A friend of mine I used to work with, just took a trip to New Mexico and this is what he wrote on Facebook what he had to go through to get the handgun on the flight.

Traveling with a handgun was interesting. You have to put it in a hard sided locked TSA approved case. Tell the agent when checking your suitcase there is an unloaded firearm in the suitcase. They have you open the case and they inspect the contents. The gun and mag have to be separate and unload, the ammo has to been in a retail type box that keeps them separate and not touching. Then you sign two docs stating that it is unloaded. Then you proceed to a TSA agent that removes everything from your suitcase and then asks you to unlock the gun case. They inspect it and then repack you suitcase and send it off to be loaded on the plane. Once you arrive you go to a TSA baggage claim area were you show ID and they give you the suitcase that is zip tied close with very large zip ties. Give yourself an extra 30 mins prior to boarding as it does take some time.

And I suppose they think that all this nonsense is supposed to keep the criminal/terrorist from being able to bring a weapon onboard. All it does is punish the law abiding citizen...

 

[P7M13]

Agreed, look at the statistics for the weapons that get through.
It does prevent f'tards from flying with firearms. The same kind that would probably discharge their firearm on a plane. Check stats on the number of people who have their EDC in their carry-on bag or in their checked luggage, insecure.

 

[Caveman Jim]

In my 30 years of air travels I have never had to open my gun case for the ticket clerk nor the TSA. Don't know what the circumstances were with the guy in the story were but maybe his demeanor or nervousness leading to the search????

 

[rdb241]

In my 30 years of air travels I have never had to open my gun case for the ticket clerk nor the TSA. Don't know what the circumstances were with the guy in the story were but maybe his demeanor or nervousness leading to the search????

No reason for him to be nervous at all. A carrier Boeing man on a trip with his son to see family in New Mexico. This guy is a friendly light hearted good sense of humor guy. The worst he as ever done was traffic violations. He would not make this stuff up.

 

[EPS]

Sea tac end of October.
I flew with gun all the hard case and ammo separate stuff is correct.
But I didn't have to open the gun case it's self.
They had me remove the case from my bag then they did a swab test .
Then signed the papers one goes in the bag .
Then sent bag to plane.
When I got to destination.
It came out with all the other bags.

 

[Caveman Jim]

No reason for him to be nervous at all. A carrier Boeing man on a trip with his son to see family in New Mexico. This guy is a friendly light hearted good sense of humor guy. The worst he as ever done was traffic violations. He would not make this stuff up.

I've learned by experience that TSA & LE prey on the nervous types, just sayin.
Never had to show them the inside of my gun case just the locked case itself.
Answer questions directly, not adding any off comments at all and know their rules. I always have a copy of the carriers rules, highlighted important facts in my hand when at the ticket counter and TSA station.

 

[rdb241]

I've learned by experience that TSA & LE prey on the nervous types, just sayin.
Never had to show them the inside of my gun case just the locked case itself.
Answer questions directly, not adding any off comments at all and know their rules. I always have a copy of the carriers rules, highlighted important facts in my hand when at the ticket counter and TSA station.

That may be but not in this case. He has nothing to be nervous about.

 

[Kruel J]

I was just wondering if one flies with a handgun do they fly in circles? Maybe one in each hand would even things out?

 

[SquirrelSlayer]

I travel for work, with a firearm when I can. my experience is that different airports have different policies concerning firearms. My "Home" airport is easy. Declare the firearm (Locked with a non TSA lock in a hardsided container, unloaded and ammunition separate in a seperate container that doesn't let the cartridges contact each other) sign/date the declaration and drop it in the bag with the firearm. Off it goes! Some other airports make it difficult and time consuming by having me wait with the bag in a holding area for a TSA to swab the case. The tie wraps around the bag and having to wait at baggage services is relatively recent, maybe three years. Those tie wraps are cheapies, I normally break them with my foot in front of the baggage office. BE CAREFUL OF WHICH AIRPORTS YOU TRANSIT THROUGH!!! If you get stranded overnight in some locations and retrieve your bag containing a firearm you're going to jail. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

 

[MrTwentyTwo]

What's the "swab" all about?

 

[SquirrelSlayer]

Explosives detection, keep your kit clean!

 

[Member 34319]

I've done it twice now.

It's not that bad at PDX.

Alaskan is pretty good about it.

Show up early, have pistol in locked approved hardcase. DO NOT USE PLAIN OLE CHEAP HARD CASE. For your own sake ensure the case has metal inserts where the locks engage. TWO LOCKS OR THREE. Locked on multiple sides, PDX is known for guns going missing.

It's best to not have a small lockable box placed inside your checked luggage. Unless you want your entire stuff gone through, I did this once, I had all my clothes in sealed compression bags as I always do. The gun box was not in these bags. Yet they went through everything and maid a freaking mess. AND YES UT APPEARED AS IF THE GUN BOX WAS ATTEMPTED TO BE OPENED.

The second time I used a larger separate case with 4 locks on it.

Be prepared to have the gun box and maybe even all of your luggage show up late to the baggage claim. Be prepared to have your gun box take up to an hour to show up to the courtesy counter on the other side of the airport from the baggage claim. That happened the second time, yippee!

Be prepared to have a ridiculous amount of high quality zip ties wrapped unnaturally all over the gun box.

I stopped flying with a gun.

If I ever do it again, I'll ship the damn thing to a local FFL and pick it up after I arrive.

 

[WAYNO]

I've flown a lot with firearms. I've experienced complete non-issues, as well as some ridiculous episodes.

One time in PDX, flying to Idaho, the ticket counter person asked me to remove my rifle from the hard case. The people in line behind me shrieked in horror. The person asked me if it was unloaded. I replied, yes it was unloaded, and at that point the person looked down the bore from the muzzle end. What could this person have been thinking?

Satisfied the rifle was safe, it was cased back up and sent wherever they send them to be loaded on the plane.

It's case by case, employee by employee, airport by airport. And it's not because they see me as the nervous type, but because too many of them are the idiot type.

Another time, arriving at Boise Airport, everything came down the luggage belt except our gun cases. Nobody with the airline, or with the airport, knew where our guns were. Nobody really cared, other than suggesting different places to look for ourselves. It was a long time later, maybe a couple hours, we found our cased rifles at the end of a blind hallway near the closed offices of the airline we flew. Completely unattended. We figure the luggage monkeys personally carried our guns to the airline offices, found them closed, and just left our guns outside the door.

If there is a standardized procedure of how firearms should be handled when flying, obviously not everybody has read the memo.

 

[No_Regerts]

There is no rhyme or reason. One ticket agent wanted all my ammo IN THE MAGAZINES. So, I stood at the ticket counter, and loaded all my mags in front of everyone. Don't mind me folks! Just getting ready for the flight!

 

[DONOTBUGME]

Sea tac end of October.
I flew with gun all the hard case and ammo separate stuff is correct.
But I didn't have to open the gun case it's self.
They had me remove the case from my bag then they did a swab test .
Then signed the papers one goes in the bag .
Then sent bag to plane.
When I got to destination.
It came out with all the other bags.

If you didnt open you case, how did you put the signed declaration, you sign at bag drop? Just did this on Friday, I had a large caese with a shotgun, 9mm AR, and a hand gun plus mags. I then close and lock the case wand walk it over TSA. Open case for them. They swab, I close and lock the case with NON TSA locks. (I flew alaska)

Arizona air port does the same procedure to get the sign declaration, lock it but they take the case to the back and you wait 20 mins. If they dont come get you, you can leave.

 

[DLS]

Have a printed copy of both TSAs and the particular airlines policies in hand. Don 't make people suffer finding them on a phone. Read and know the policies, they are not long nor are they complicated. If the counter agent asks for something contrary to the policies show them the paperwork.

If that doesn't change their minds, and this happens occasionally, just politely ask for their supervisor. I rarely have to do this and when I have either the hand-help papers or the supervisor got things back on track in a jiffy.

Usually if a weird request is given it's due to a poorly trained counter agent and not some anti-2A gesture by the agent.

 

[EPS]

If you didnt open you case, how did you put the signed declaration, you sign at bag drop? Just did this on Friday, I had a large caese with a shotgun, 9mm AR, and a hand gun plus mags. I then close and lock the case wand walk it over TSA. Open case for them. They swab, I close and lock the case with NON TSA locks. (I flew alaska)

Arizona air port does the same procedure to get the sign declaration, lock it but they take the case to the back and you wait 20 mins. If they dont come get you, you can leave.

I flew Alaska also I didn't have to open the pistol case but had to open my big luggage bag that it was in.
Just had to put the paper in the big bag on top of the locked pistol case.
Pistol case was locked with my locks.
The big luggage bag was locked with tsa locks.
They swab both .
Pistol case they swab outside.
Big bag the swab both inside and outside of it.

 

[EPS]

What's the "swab" all about?

They take a little piece of paper or cloth like and swab the bag or case and then put it into a computer thing and it detects explosives.
Actually my big luggage bag came back positive and the pistol case was a negative.
So she had to call a supervisor over and he checked out my bag and and gave the OK to proceed.
It's not really a big deal just adds time to your trip .mine was about a extra 20 minutes.
Because the positive results on the swab.
Waiting for a supervisor.

 

[EPS]

Explosives detection, keep your kit clean!

Yep my big bag got a positive swab.
Probably gunpowder residue on it from being in the same room as all my ammo and gun cleaning stuff .
Also close to my black powder stuff.