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When I was stationed at Bragg, I had a couple of privately owned firearms, we had to check them with the company armorer. Check out for weekend shooting, weapons remaining off base until the armorer was back on duty or if you could get him to come in. Ours was pretty good since he lived in base housing, about off hours processing. Just had to treat him to beers or maybe a dinner every once in a while. I made sure we were best friends. This was circa 1980.

I still travel and stay at base lodging and shop the NEX at Carswell from time to time (BTW they have M-4s and ARs at reasonable prices, even during Obama's gun grab warning) and have come to realize there is no standard as the base CO has a lot of latitude in how weapons are handled.

For instance, Carswell has to be notified prior to arrival if your coming on base with a weapon for Space-A travel. It takes about 3 days to get all the paper work sorted. You report in to the visitor center, they call for an SP to meet you and escort you to PAX. They don't leave until the Terminal NCO takes possession of it. Even though the CNATRA Document governing Space-A says that all TSA regs will be followed, there is no ammo, boxed or otherwise allowed on board and the loadmaster of the AC can refuse to accept it, though they rarely do. If you buy a weapon at the NEX, SP's come and escort you off base.

In contrast, Andrews AFB in MARYLAND, when arriving will bring your luggage and firearm around to the front of PAX and once you pick it up, leave you to your own devices. Likewise, when you come into PAX to depart, declare it unloaded, hand it over and proceed with check in. Done and Done. Kinda ironic, huh?

NAS Pensacola has a sign out front that states if caught, your CCW will be confiscated and you will be fined $450. Expensive but not life ending.

NAS Key West has a sign up front, and they are very good about it, to notify and check your weapon with SPs. Pick up when you leave, etc. We took out one Sunday morning the last time we were there and returned early evening. We notified at the gate as we were supposed to and were told, "Consider security notified, do not carry on base but from your vehicle directly to your trailer and back."

So there is huge variance depending on the attitudes of the base CO.