Travelling - interstate via airlines.. case?

[jimlongley]

As I understand it, the purpose to the TSA locks is to allow the TSA to open for inspection without cutting your lock.

That is true, and a TSA lock would be a good idea on your regular luggage.

If you don't use a TSA lock, and they can't find you, yours gets cut and your luggage then stays unlocked for the rest of your trip. Not a good idea IMHO.

Not true, TSA regs require you to be the only holder of the key or combination, which automatically eliminates TSA locks.

If TSA has to cut the lock on your gun case, it will NOT stay unlocked for the rest of your trip, it will not go at all unless you can relock it before you leave.

If TSA or the airport can't find you are they supposed to assume you took an earlier flight, that you are sitting in a rest room, that you are already on the plane and can't hear the announcements? No, TSA is going to think worst case, that whatever you checked that they have to inspect, is something that is not supposed to be there, because you have left the airport and/or can't be found.

Yes, it's a little bit of guilty until proven innocent, but consider their point of view: You checked a bag, containing a gun, and the system has detected something that may be bad hidden in your gun case. The x-ray can't see through your gun, can't even, reliably, tell if it's loaded (magazines, full or empty, in the gun are easy, but rounds in chambers are surrounded by a lot of metal designed to contain them), and they are not allowed to guess that, just because you were honest and declared your gun, you didn't really have a bomb concealed in the gun case.

A little digression - the x-ray system is computerized and when it detects something that it thinks is not supposed to be there, it sounds an alarm, which then has to be resolved before the bag can be allowed to go on the plane. These days a lot of us are carrying guns equipped with laser sights, so that means a battery or two and some electronics included with the gun, and a little bit of wiring. Guess what that looks like on the screen?

This is why this former TSA agent STRONGLY recommends that you make every effort to stay with your checked bag until it clears TSA. If screening takes place out of your sight, then make sure that TSA, or at least the ticket agent, knows right where you are until the bag is cleared. In some airports bags with guns are checked in a separate location to make it convenient for the passenger to attend, but I think this is a violation of protocol and should not happen.

Another digression - Suppose you are a smarter than average criminal, just hanging out at the airport for a warm place to stay (it happens) and you notice that almost every bag goes on the belt back to the TSA machine, but some go over to a special area. This raises your curiosity a little, so you go over and ask a ticket agent some inane questions while listening to other agents checking passengers in. It's pretty well known that you are one of the homeless denizens of the terminal, that you hang out there and are not thrown out unless and until you cause a fuss, and everyone begrudgingly tolerates your presence.

Pretty soon you become aware that only bags with guns are sent to the special screening area, and then all you have to do is find a way to steal one of those bags and you will be able to sell the gun on the street for enough cash to keep you in Thunderbird for a couple of weeks.

[/digress]

So, you're going to travel with a gun.

Plan ahead.

Leave extra time.

Take copies of the airlines' and TSA's rules and regs.

Use a lock that only you have the key or combination to.

Use a good quality box.

Follow all of the rules.

Be prepared.

And for pete's sake, if you are going to travel with a gun, work within the system, don't try to find ways to shortcut it, skirt around the edges, or even just be resentful. You already know that these rules and inconveniences exist, follow them.

That's it, that's all. Do it, live with it. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.

[stash]

I understand that the suitcase can be soft sided, but does it have to be locked?

[roberts]

It depends if you want the inside case stolen and opened later when they have time.

[ELB]

This is why this former TSA agent STRONGLY recommends that you make every effort to stay with your checked bag until it clears TSA. If screening takes place out of your sight, then make sure that TSA, or at least the ticket agent, knows right where you are until the bag is cleared. In some airports bags with guns are checked in a separate location to make it convenient for the passenger to attend, but I think this is a violation of protocol and should not happen.

I haven't flown thru every airport in the land, but I've gone thru quite a few with my gun, and I've only been one place that I could not directly observe my own suitcase going thru the X-ray -- and I always wait. Normally I carried it myself right to nearby TSA screeners, told the guy who took it what was in it, and they very quickly ran it thru. Usually they just gave me the thumbs up and threw it on the conveyer. A couple times they opened it, satisfied themselves my spare surefire batteries were not a bomb, and again I was on my way pretty quickly.

The one exception was DIA, where a porter took my bag (with me tagging along) from the United counter clear across the airport to a separate screening room, where I stooged around outside until a TSA employee came back with the bag -- and then the porter, again with me in tow, took it all the way back to the United counter to go on the baggage conveyer. This was not hard, just a big nuisance, offset by the fact that when I told the United employee managing the check in queue that I needed to declare a firearm, I got to skip the 150 people in line and go to the "special" check-in counter, where about five people were checking in pets in cages, skiis, golf clubs, and other odd-size baggage. Timewise I got the better deal.

And I always lock the outside bag, more to keep it from coming open in transit and spilling everything out, rather than to keep thieves out. I use zip-ties, and the TSA guys have always been good about putting a new one one when I pointed out where the spare zipties are in an outside pocket.

[jimlongley]

I haven't flown thru every airport in the land, but I've gone thru quite a few with my gun, and I've only been one place that I could not directly observe my own suitcase going thru the X-ray -- and I always wait. Normally I carried it myself right to nearby TSA screeners, told the guy who took it what was in it, and they very quickly ran it thru. Usually they just gave me the thumbs up and threw it on the conveyer. A couple times they opened it, satisfied themselves my spare surefire batteries were not a bomb, and again I was on my way pretty quickly.

The one exception was DIA, where a porter took my bag (with me tagging along) from the United counter clear across the airport to a separate screening room, where I stooged around outside until a TSA employee came back with the bag -- and then the porter, again with me in tow, took it all the way back to the United counter to go on the baggage conveyer. This was not hard, just a big nuisance, offset by the fact that when I told the United employee managing the check in queue that I needed to declare a firearm, I got to skip the 150 people in line and go to the "special" check-in counter, where about five people were checking in pets in cages, skiis, golf clubs, and other odd-size baggage. Timewise I got the better deal.

And I always lock the outside bag, more to keep it from coming open in transit and spilling everything out, rather than to keep thieves out. I use zip-ties, and the TSA guys have always been good about putting a new one one when I pointed out where the spare zipties are in an outside pocket.

After I was with TSA, I flew all over the country for another company, often with my gun. The uneven administration of the rules led to my writing several letters to TSA and the various airlines involved and some of the problems with screening guns in separate loactions really pushed the issue.

Once a bag has been screened by TSA it is not supposed to enter the non-secured area of the airport again, even in the hands of an airline employee. Even TSA screeners are not supposed to move a screened bag through the unsecured area. That said, when I worked at DAL we routinely did just that.

Knowing what I learned then, there is not a zipper bag that I could not get into in seconds, so I don't lock mine anymore, and I can get though almost any hard side bag with integral locks just about as easily. Good quality external locks are the only thing that slow determined thieves down significantly.