TSA

[American123]

I'm gonna experience things for myself for the first time next month. I'm gonna fly to Phoenix with my G26 and the GF will be bringing her G19. After we are done there, we are gonna head over to Palm Springs. I am only gonna have the 10 round mags that came with my G26 and I bought a 10 rounder for the G19.

I didn't know my FDE G19 was not legit in California ahahahah another reason why I hate that state but I digress. So ya...... oh btw.... both Glocks are Gen3

Last time I flew, I opted out of the body scanner. I went through the metal detector and a Toilet Seat Attendant "agent" physically checked my person. I could have placed one of those hard and heavy duty polymer daggers or the knife shaped tool in my bottom cheeks area and they would have never known....... TSA is just an illusion that you are safe..... again I digress. Wanna pi$$ of the TSA? ask them how many terrorists they've detained/arrested lol.

If you are flying with a handgun that you can fit your hard sided locked container into your regular checked bag, I've heard it goes like every other checked bag and it can't be seen that the bag has a gun. Seems to be a problem primarily with long gun cases.

 

[41mag]

Last couple times I ever had issue with airlines was circa 1991. I had long worn a custom belt knife made from a planer blade. Total OAL was something under 3 1/2", as it was designed for 2 fingers on the stag antler handle & the thumb/forefinger grasping the sides of the 1" cutting surface.

It was indestructible & immensely useful for 90% of my sharp-edge needs. The SFO security (pre TSA) crew had multiple psychotic seizures about it. If you don't like the pat down these days, I would submit you consider alternative of the professional intrusion of combat German shepherd inspecting your southern Netherlands.....

So after the full-body against-the-wall dog pile by multiple agents of the Inquisition AND 'the wand' (which kept going off as I did have some medical devices) I was given my stuff back & proceeded to board.

Had connecting flight out of John Wayne Airport outside LA which in those days was considerably lower key & far less crowded. It was way off-rush hour (early-early or late-late I forget which) but the various gate people were in their 'mid shift' phase. As I carefully put the instrument of destruction in the tray, you could see the alarm go off in the screeners eyes. Immediately (well, almost, the armed security guys had to be summoned & put their coffee down) and an intense discussion ensued.

After about 20 minutes of banter & threats (theirs, not mine) and pointing out at least 2 prior security searches had given a pass to my little helper, the Queen Supervisor agreed I could ship it home in a box if I gave it to the Security Supervisor.....who took me around the corner, measured it against her (literally) middle finger, and made me swear to "keep it in your pocket"....marched us both back to the gate boss, hold it up next to her (key word) middle finger (knife of doom was shorter) and denounce in those chilling tones of "You are an idiot & this proves it so do it MY way" I was ushered aboard with said item in possession.

Humorous at the time, and more so now days. Obvious passion play of conflict and of turf & power of one mid level minion over another not-quite-equal minion. There are other reasons I no longer fly, but would imagine considerable more turmoil these days.

 

[jj500]

Seems like when you take these kinds of individuals,TSA agents,and give them a little power over the masses your asking for a bubblegumz show. Most of the people would excel as a Wal-Mart greeter but when they have control over people lives,thats just not right.And like was said ,exactly how many terrorist have been caught by them versus how many people have been screwed with unnecessarily?

 

[Flopsweat]

Minimum wage commandos. I despise those clowns.

The answer to the commandos is commando: Just before they start the pat down you tell them "Just so you know, I'm going commando". Watch their eyes.

...when we got back to Seattle I'm waiting forever for it to show up on the luggage carousel and it never did. So I go ask a person and they tell me they put the guns in a cart off to the side.

Basically ANYBODY could have walked off with a couple grand in that case and I would have been SOL. Bumb dastards.
...

I've had the same thing happen at the same airport.

...
southern Netherlands.....

...

 

[WAYNO]

The answer to the commandos is commando: Just before they start the pat down you tell them "Just so you know, I'm going commando". Watch their eyes.

If you don't like the pat down these days, I would submit you consider alternative of the professional intrusion of combat German shepherd inspecting your southern Netherlands.....

 

[P7M13]

Nearly the same thing happened to me when we flew to Boise with checked rifles. The hard cases didn't come out with our luggage. We asked where they might be, and nobody knew. We looked in a number of likely places to no avail, but after way too much time, and we we were getting desperate for answers, we went to the airline office, and we found our gun cases sitting in a hallway, completely unattended.

I've had the exact same thing happen to me in Boise (Alaska) and Kansas City (American).
First thing I do now when I get to the carousel area is ask a rep for my airline, "where will I find my firearm?"

I'm gonna experience things for myself for the first time next month. I'm gonna fly to Phoenix ...
TSA is just an illusion that you are safe..... again I digress. Wanna pi$$ of the TSA? ask them how many terrorists they've detained/arrested lol.

I always found Phoenix very chill. They used to have the PSA on the car rental bus talking about firearms.
I can remember 6x when I have gotten one of two folding knives through TSA. Two, perhaps three when I had to ship something back to myself.

 

[WillametteWill]

This coding seems to be airline specific. I have only noticed it with American but it may be with others too. On my recent return flight they expected me to have a firearm based on my flight outbound.

I fly with firearms 2 - 4 times per month on average. TSA, especially out of PDX has always been extremely polite, professional and helpful. Typically (perhaps not always but typically) TSA is not involved after your firearm goes through screening. It is in the hands of the airline. Some hold the case at the baggage counter, some wait for you at the oversized lot and other just dump it in with the rest of the baggage. Recent flights with Alaska and American have held my bag, which is fine as long as you know it is happening.

Southwest seems to just leave it with the other bags with no indication there is a firearm inside. Know your airport and airlines. (Which I understand is sometimes difficult if you have not been there.) Of the 20+ airports I have flown out of the best combination is PDX and Southwest.