Yes, very interesting.
From what little I know of non-co-located screening of firearms:
A) TSA is not supposed to break the lock unless they can secure the bag equally well.
B) There is supposed to be a streamlined procedure for the passenger to stand by with the key or combination.
Having said that, I will admit that opinions vary as to the effectiveness of various locking systems so that A above becomes kind of a "he said, she said" deal, or a "Catch 22" because TSA might break the lock, and then apply a tie wrap to secure the case, and TSA does not accept tie wraps as being secure enough for the original submission. I have demonstrated, many times, that I can open almost any tie wrap made with a pair of tweezers off my keychain, without damagin the tie wrap.
I personally would go with the TSA locks. The TSA locks, by Sentry and a couple of other manufacturers, have special keys that allow TSA to open them. No other agency is authorized to possess TSA lock keys and they are kept under lock and key and signed out only by designated personnel, so the likelyhood that someone else will have one is very slim. Having seen them, and taking great pride in my ability to defeat various locks, I would not even try to tackle a TSA lock.
I am constantly amazed when I see gun cases come through where the owner has used the luggage snap locks to secure his gun, the same luggage snaps that every other owner of a gun case has a key to, along with millions of other people in the world, and which locks are very easy to open with a small screwdriver. Same goes for those cheapo keyed luggage locks from the hardware store, and don't even think about the combination ones, I can open most of them in less than five minutes.
I don't know how to resolve this situation, I don't know if it occurring at DFW or at other airports where screening is conducted away fromt he public eye. We do get similar situations at our airport, where we are "Drop and Go." The ticket agents are supposed to tell people who have checked firearms to standby near our screening area so we can open their cases, and about 75% do, the other quarter seem to either have not heard the agent, or the agent didn't tell them, or they didn't think it was important. I have seen several gun owners called back to find us already inside the case that we called them back to open, usually because their locks were inadequate in the first place.
BTW, I have a small supply of "Operation Child Safe" locks that I keep handy at the airport, and when we get the not unusual "I thought the case had to be unlocked." person, I donate them a lock, along with my card so they can write to TSA and tell them what a good guy I am,
and do you think one of the 15 or so has done so? :?
I hate to see people like that poster implying that TSA people are as untrustworthy as he seem to think we are, the bad apples were weeded out long ago, and let me tell thee, if we wanted to rob and steal from people's bags, at this point we have learned enough tricks to do it with little effort.
Heck, I can get into just about any zipper bag that exists, locked or otherwise, with a ballpoint pen, and then close it back up so you would never know it was open. And I hate to see them come through with a gun (in a hard case of course) inside them, because I learned that trick long before I was TSA and let's just say the person I learned it from doesn't belong in one of our homes.
If it was me travelling and I was in one of those airports, I think I would ask the ticket agent to let me stand by, and to notify TSA that I was doing so, at a particular location, such as the baggage office, and insist on positive confirmation that my bag had cleared screening. If they didn't want to do that, I would ask to speak to a TSA supervisor or screening manager, and voice my concern to them.
And remember, for over three years now people have been being warned to get to the airport at least 2 hours early. Even if I work at a "10 minute" airport, where the lines are rarely long enough to last ten minutes and where all the gates are less than a ten minute walk from the security checkpoint, I have little sympathy for those who come charging up and tell me that their flight is about to leave and they don't have time for screening. My usual response is to tell them I sympathize but that if I don't do my job I will lose it, or worse, of they happen to be a terrorist and do something nasty, it will be my fault - there's another plane later or tomorrow.
I started on that compendium of travel tips, and have gotten sidetracked by my surgery and the follow-up, and work schedule, and other things, plus I keep finding more stuff to put in.
