Some time back, I had occasion to fly from Houston to South Carolina. I printed out the TSA regs before hand and folded them up and placed them in my gun case. I field stripped my 1911 and locked it in the case. I had one box of ammo in the manufacturers box inside the case as well. Arriving at the airport in Houston, things went smooth as silk. I declared, opened for verification, closed, locked and placed the case inside my checked bag. No problem at all. Returning from South Carolina, I followed the same procedure, only to be informed at the airport that they were confiscating my ammunition. I spent the next hour, exercising what little tact and patience I had left (I had just buried my father and wasn't real happy), before I finally got a supervisor with TSA to come out and talk to me. After showing him the print out from their web page and my original flight stubs from Houston, I was allowed to keep the ammunition. Bottom line here; 1 - Know the procedures involved. 2 Document the procedures involved. 3 - Keep your cool.
TSA is not an agency I am overly impressed with (for a variety of reasons) and as with any new agency, the growing pains will be suffered more by their victims than by them. The only way you will win any dispute with them is with cold hard facts. The minute you lose your cool, they label you as disruptive and they are allowed to exercise control of you in ANY way they think fit in the name of national security.
