[Paul]

So I flew to Phoenix early Wednesday AM played 84 holes of golf and got home late Friday night. (Yeah it was rough).

So when I get to the counter in SLC I tell the Delta lady I have a firearm to declare. She said OK handed me the orange card and told me to fill it out. After checking my bags in she had me bring my bag with the gun in it down to a security guy and told him I had a gun and left me with him. She was a bit confused about carrying ammo with the gun but the security guy staightened her out. The security guy opened my bag, I gave him the key to my gun case and he opened it and looked at the gun and asked if it was unloaded. I told him yes, he put the card in the bag then asked me to lock the gun case so I was sure it was locked. He did a search of my bag and looked in every compartment and also did a swab inside the bag to check for explosives. Nothing turned up so we closed everything back up and he sent me on my way. He was very courteous and professional as was the Delta ticket counter lady. It added no more than 5 minutes to my trip.

I stayed at a nice gold resort outside of Phoenix. I carried my KelTec P32 in a pocket holster. Most of the time the gun was in my golf bag but during the time I wasn't golfing I just pocket carried it. After the last round thursday night I needed to get the gun out my bag and put it in my pocket because I was having the clubhouse hold my golf clubs over night. There was a caddie (?) right there cleaning off my clubs. The second you pulled up to the clubhouse someone was always right there cleaning your clubs and asking what you needed. While he was cleaning my clubs I just unzipped the place I had my gun and took it out and slipped it in my pocket. I literally asked him to move over so I could get into my bag. He was standing there the whole time. People are oblivious to what goes on around them. It was very comforting to have the gun with me even at night in my room. Made me feel much more comfortable.

Upon departure at the Phoenix airport I told the Delta counter guy I had a gun to declare. He said Ok and handed me the card and told me to fill it out and put it in the gun case. I did this and asked him if he needed to look at the gun. He said no, just put the tag in the case. I did it right at the ticket counter. He paid absolutely no attention to me. He checked my bags then told me where to take them and that was it. At the xray machine I told the guy taking the bags I had a locked firearm in this bag and he put it on the xray machine first and told the guy watching the luggage that there was a locked bag. Took about 1 minute to run the bag through and the scanner guy yelled "Lock bag cleared." They then said thanks and I was off. This time it couldn't have added more than 1 minute to my time. I was putting the tag in my gun case while the Delta counter guy was checking my bags and printing my boarding pass. The security people ran my locked bag first so that was fast. All around everyone treated me very professionally and there were no hang ups at all. Very smooth.

Oh yeah, 84 holes of golf in 2.5 days is a lot. I had to come home and rest all weekend. I also won $50 on a closest to the pin contest. Yipee... I must also say that not having been on this forum since TUesday last week, I don't think I will ever be able to catch up reading all the new posts... :crying:

 

[roseblood]

This makes me wonder if the tags they use have radio-opaque dye in them to show up on the x-ray machine indicating the case has been inspected.

 

[divegeek]

My airport firearm experiences were interesting because I had to go through it three times, and every one was different.

At SLC, the Delta agent gave me the tag, checked the my gun was unloaded and the ammunition was in the original manufacturer's box, then asked me to lock the case with the signed tag inside. He then walked me over to the TSA, where the TSA agent had me unlock the case so he could check the gun and ammunition. Then he thoroughly hand-searched my bag. He said that was because it wasn't going to be x-rayed. After the search and the bomb-sniffer machine test, he wished me a good day and told me I could head up to the gate.

I had a connection in Cincinnati that was canceled due to the co-pilot's failure to show up, so Delta put me up in a hotel in Cinci for the night. That meant that I had to check my bag again in the morning. This time I was on American (Delta put me on American because their earliest flight wouldn't have gotten me to Madison in time for my meeting), and the process was quite a bit different.

The American agent didn't look at the gun, the ammo, the case or anything. She just slapped a tag on the counter and told me to lock it in the case with the gun. I did, then she took my bag, handed me a boarding pass and told me how to get to the gate. I was a little confused because according to the TSA web site you MUST be available to open your locked case for the TSA to inspect, and if you aren't they say your bag will not get on the plane. I sat at the gate expecting to be called back, but never was, so I boarded.

At that point I was certain that my bag wouldn't show up in Madison but, sure enough, there it was, gun inside, no TSA inspection sticker or card. It was never checked by anyone. Fine by me, but surprising.

On the flight home, the Delta agent in Madison was nice but quite confused. He put my bag and carry-on behind the counter and asked me to walk back to the TSA inspection point with him, bringing my gun along in its case. He took me through the door behind the counter and deep into the non-public area of the airport, where a couple of TSA guys were searching bags that they pulled off of a conveyor. They pointed out that they needed to search my whole bag, not just the gun case, so the Delta agent walked back up front to get my bag, leaving me to chat with the TSA guys. They were cool and we talked a little about carrying and how nice it was I lived in a state where I could get a CFP (WI has no concealed carry permit, does not honor anyone else's permit and frowns on open carry). While the agent was gone they glanced in my gun case and had me lock it. When the agent returned they briefly searched my bag, put my gun case in it and closed it up.

All in all, it was a very positive experience. Chatting with the Madison TSA guys was fun, and none of the airline agents gave my any trouble. It didn't even take much extra time for the check-in process. Really, the biggest hassle was checking at all -- I normally carry everything on.

 

[apollosmith]

I had a connection in Cincinnati that was canceled due to the co-pilot's failure to show up, so Delta put me up in a hotel in Cinci for the night. That meant that I had to check my bag again in the morning.

I've always wondered what might happen if this happened in Chicago or D.C. or someplace that has gun bans in place. It certainly wouldn't be difficult for them to find a reason to charge you with having an illegal gun, right? I know federal laws allow interstate transportation of guns, but some of these places don't seem to think that applies to them if you stay the night there.

They were cool and we talked a little about carrying and how nice it was I lived in a state where I could get a CFP (WI has no concealed carry permit, does not honor anyone else's permit and frowns on open carry).

So, was it legal for you to even take your gun to WI?

I appreciate the insight here. I travel A LOT, but have yet to take my gun with me (mostly because the vast majority of my travel is to D.C. or California). I have a few trips coming up where I want to take the gun with me.

 

[Car Knocker]

I've always wondered what might happen if this happened in Chicago or D.C. or someplace that has gun bans in place. It certainly wouldn't be difficult for them to find a reason to charge you with having an illegal gun, right?

You go to jail for 5 days: http://www.anjrpc.org/fopalawsuit.htm

 

[roseblood]

I've always wondered what might happen if this happened in Chicago or D.C. or someplace that has gun bans in place. It certainly wouldn't be difficult for them to find a reason to charge you with having an illegal gun, right?

You go to jail for 5 days: http://www.anjrpc.org/fopalawsuit.htm

I think if that ever happened I would insist that the airline hold my luggage until the next flight. I can live without a change of clothes for one day to avoid 5 days in jail.

 

[Jeff Johnson]

I've always wondered what might happen if this happened in Chicago or D.C. or someplace that has gun bans in place. It certainly wouldn't be difficult for them to find a reason to charge you with having an illegal gun, right?

You go to jail for 5 days: http://www.anjrpc.org/fopalawsuit.htm

I've read that story before. It's an egregious abuse of power and violation of the law and the constitution.

And it's not an isolated case. :disgusted:

 

[divegeek]

I've always wondered what might happen if this happened in Chicago or D.C. or someplace that has gun bans in place. It certainly wouldn't be difficult for them to find a reason to charge you with having an illegal gun, right? I know federal laws allow interstate transportation of guns, but some of these places don't seem to think that applies to them if you stay the night there.

Yeah. I would not take it if I thought there was a serious chance of having to collect my bag in one of those places. I actually DID end up connecting through Chicago (which wasn't on the original itinerary), and I thought about that but decided that since I was flying through there very early in the morning the chance of having to spend a night there was miniscule.

So, was it legal for you to even take your gun to WI?

Yes, although unless I wanted to OC and risk trouble with the police it was pretty much useless for self-defense. I took it out of the gun safe and kept it loaded while in my hotel room, but the rest of the time I had to keep it unloaded and locked in the car, in the gun safe. Doing that is legal under both Wisconsin law, and, of course, the Federal "Safe Passage" law.

When I found out how useless it was to have it in WI I almost decided not to take it. In the end I decided I wanted to test the waters and see exactly how transporting a firearm works. My wife is going to Florida with me soon, and I wanted to thoroughly understand the issues and process so she wouldn't have a reason to argue against taking it there. This trip was a good test case because I knew I'd have plenty of extra time both coming and going and I was traveling alone so there would be no one else to inconvenience if the gun stuff caused delays.