Flying with firearms

[colt_saa]

I have been flying with handguns in my luggage for the past 25 or 30 years.

The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR 108.11) REQUIRE that the Red non-loaded Firearm affidavit that you sign in front of the ticket agent be INSIDE the case. I have never known it to be different.

ALWAYS check in with the ticket agent and request a Firearms Declaration Form. Offer to show the ticket agent that the firearm is unloaded, about half will turn you down.

My firearms are always in soft pouches inside of my hard sided lockable Samsonite suitcase. A hard sided suitcase Must Not use TSA locks. You are required to be in control of the Firearm throughout the Flight. A lock that TSA must get a key from you to open meets this requirement

Many Airports do not have a TSA area to send you off to. If this is the case, wait around the Security screening area and listen for your name to be paged. They will come and get the key from you. An agent is not supposed to open the case without a witness, usually a Supervisor. I usually head to the gate after 15 minutes of not hearing from them.

Once or twice since 9-11 I have had TSA agents try to tell me that the regulation meant a locked case inside a suitcase. I asked for them to pull out the regulation and show me where it said that.

I then pointed out that if their interpretation was correct, it would be pretty hard to take a hard sided rifle case and put it inside a suitcase. If we need to go beyond that, I ask for the Supervisor.

In easily over 100 flights I can not recall more than a few problems. The worst of which was the TSA staff at Boston's Logan airport. It took four agents and three supervisors looking through the pages of their "Guideline" book before they would admit there was no such requirement in those actual words.

If you are going through an Airport in a very Anti-Gun City or State, you might want to print out both the FARs involved and the Airlines policy from their website.

Advisory Circular 108-2

49 CFR 1540.111

Many TSA Agents will back down from arguing their beliefs if you have the printed FACTS with you

 

[Lowa]

Any time I fly, I take a gun.

Any lockbox to which only you have a key. Check the bag and let them know.

It's incredibly easy, almost like checking any bag ever. Just don't enter a state where they violate your rights, because the cops will enjoy giving you life in prison.

 

[chief38]

The problem with flying with firearms are the people who are enforcing the laws know little about them. They are all looking for their gold star and make issues out of non issues. My experience is that many things they confiscated are 100% perfectly legal - however you can't argue or reason with them. That's what happens when you give people badges who don't have the ability to think rationally.

 

[Larry FF]

Thank you to everyone that responded to my post. Just to be on the safe side, I have decided to do an FFL-to-FFL transfer. This will cost some dollars, but in the long run, it will be hassle free to get the guns from Illinois to Arizona.

 

[Toyman]

Check with the airline you are flying with to see how many guns you can put in your luggage,each one seems to have a different number.

 

[John_M52]

5 is not an issue on United. Lock them in a pelican or hard side case (non TSA lock). Then put that and the orange tag in a larger plain Jane suitcase (reduces theft). And go to the airport an hour or two early, depending on the airport.

 

[CH4]

I do it regularly, anywhere from 1-8 guns. Just follow the airline's instructions and you'll be fine.

 

[Chubbs103]

I have flown numerous times with firearms and had some interesting results. Some of the more interesting.

I was in a small airport. The young lady handling the check-in informed me I had to remove the gun (long gun) from the case, open the action, and show her it was unloaded. I looked at the line behind me and wondered if this was about to make anyone nervous, but proceeded as instructed. She looked down at the gun, then back up at me and asked "is it unloaded?"

I was flying with a muzzle loader one time. I was instructed to open the action to show it was unloaded. I pointed out that the nipple was removed, and that the most I could do. They called a supervisor who said he didn't know what to do. Everyone shrugged and let me check it.

I was traveling on orders with an M-16A2. TSA agent looked at the case and told me not to fully open anything; just slip the paperwork in the case and lock it.

The advice to print out the airline policies as well as the TSA regulations are a good one. I was traveling with several guns in an appropriate case. The airline representative said that was against their policy. I informed the individual that no such prohibition was included in their policy on-line and I was told they would make an exception that time.

Despite this, it goes pretty smoothly most of the time.

 

[balin]

Check with the airline as they all don't have the exact same rules.

 

[SmithNut]

^^^^^
Nowdays, the tag is supposed to go inside the bag, to reduce theft. It took them years to figure that out.

.....snip
Etc.

Isn't that the truth... I've traveled a bunch over the years and have seen/experienced lots of interesting agent dynamics.

When I went to my first S&WCA Symposium in Las Vegas (early 90's), I had quite a few handguns packed in two rifle cases, when checking in to come home, the male agent behind the counter said "I need to see them".. huh?? OK, sir, where would you like me to open my cases to show you (this was at the check in counter), he looked around and told me to come behind the counter and open them on the floor.... wow, that was a treat, thought he almost wet his pants when I opened them. He pulled himself together and told me to lock the cases, then sent them down the conveyer.

Once, when checking in at DFW to fly home to the Seattle area, I went to the American counter, advised the agent that I needed to declare a firearm in my case. She then handed me a three page (one page with two carbon copies) document to sign. I asked what this is for and she said "oh, I thought you were on duty and wanted to carry aboard".... hmmmmm.

Oh well, in many other situations the agent(s) wanted to put the "steal me" red tags on the outside, had to delicately sort that out many times.

In addition to the FAA regulations, there are "policies" that individual airlines try to employ, an example was when I was checking in at Seattle for travel to Africa in 2000, I had a fairly large steel gun case that holds three long guns, I had two rifles and a shotgun packed in it. Had gone to Customs the day before to get their approval on serial numbers and such (to make it easier when returning from my trip), even presented that paperwork to the agent at check-in. The agent announced that their policy said that if there were three firearms in the box, one of them could not be a shotgun... huh??
I had the printed out regs, of which they didn't want to hear about it. After some time, they asked for a Customs agent to come by, 40 minutes later he arrived (same person I talked to the day before), talked to the agent, looked at the paperwork and advised all was good, shrugged and walked away.
When I had arrived to check-in - plenty early - the place was empty, after this situation was cleared, I got my ticket and turned around to see several hundred passengers waiting to check in.... what a cluster....

Traveling with firearms was much better 30+ years ago, when I lived in Alaska and traveled exclusively on Alaska Airlines, they know how to handle these things as they get loads of traveling hunters year around.......

I don't like traveling with firearms anymore just due to all the scatter-brained agents out there you have to deal with.

 

[Baltimoreed11754]

My wife and I flew to Ft Worth to attend the End of Trail SASS Match. I had my sg and rifle in a hard case and my 2 revolvers and a bowie in a aluminum case inside my luggage. Ammo, outfits etc had been mailed to my son out there. We got checked in at Raleigh with no problems, flew and picked up our stuff at DFW. Rented our suv and drove almost to Albuquerque, shot the match, had a ball and eventually wound up back at DFW airport. However the ticket gal there and I got into it about my cased/locked pistols being in my luggage. Told her I flew in with them that way and I wasn't going to have my pistol case ripped off. It was going to be inside my luggage. She finally said ok and everything made it back home. Haven't flown with firearms since.