The friendly skies
Lifehacker lets everyone in on the secret gun nuts have known for years: there’s less hassle and risk if you fly with a gun.
I only had my actual checked firearms inspected once. The agent is not allowed to touch the guns. He gingerly searched all around the bag and was careful not to touch any weapons. But he thought my flashlight was cool. And I think I convinced him to buy an AR.
January 15th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Same for me. I’ve never had a problem, aside from one Southwest ticket counter drone who thought I should have put my bright yellow Pelican case (with two big padlocks) into a covering bag, you know, to like, disguise it.
The TSA supervisor was amused at that one. No further problems, go right on through, sir. Sorry for your wait.
Regards,
Rabbit.
January 16th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Its so true. They do amazingly nice things for me when I declare a firearm in the bag. Of course, that means I have to actually check a bag, which I never do UNLESS I am traveling with a firearm, so it works for me. (my personal rule is to never, NEVER check bags. I can go for weeks on the road in a small carry-on.)
If you ask, they’ll even use these really nice, impossible to remove without a tool, ziptie to make sure all your zippers are secure on your bag. 8 times out of 10, they’ll do it without asking. Its one of the few times they’re actually making flying better for all of us. The rest of the time, its all “security theater”.
January 16th, 2010 at 2:03 am
Shortly after 9/11, I was flying with a rifle. When I told the agent I had a firearm to declare, she said they were doing random checks of passengers’ checked bags and, since I was checking in a firearm, that made me “random” and would I please go take my bags down to that nice man over there at the table so he can inspect them…
Granted, this was right after they had decided they didn’t need to hand inspect every single of checked baggage after all and the rules were changing daily, but still it was quite fun to hear tell me that something I did made me random.
January 16th, 2010 at 9:06 am
@TheGunGeek – This is actually something I could get behind. Like “random” search of Muslim looking people who buy 1 way tickets with no baggage.
Though, I’d just as soon that it wasn’t a dog and pony show – lose the political correctness, stop randomly search grandma from Alabama (not only is it unserious, but it is a waste of time and money), and just be courteous about it.