Account of Flying with Firearms

RNH Some airline check-in agents seemed unaware of the proper procedures for flying with firearms, but the TSA set the situation right each time.
IAH --> MAF --> DEN --> JAC 2010-03-14	JAC --> DEN --> MAF --> IAH 2010-03-18

Luggage & Gear
RNH was again traveling with his military surplus 81mm mortar case secured with a Abus Diskus 20/70 padlock on the customary heavy duty hasp. His Smith & Wesson M&P .40 in a Crossbreed supertuck holster was with him tha tday, plus one 50 round cardboard box of ammo.

Outbound Travel
At IAH, Terminal C, the ticket counter agent was calm & matter of fact with the check-in. The Continental agent carried RNH's 45 pound crate to a TSA station about fifty feet from the check-in area. They then waited five or ten minutes for a TSA officer to arrive to hand-check the luggage.

RNH describes the TSA screener as a black female in her fifties. She was disconcerted that the handgun was not in a locked container *inside* of the locked hard sided luggage. She said that (a) she could not touch the firearm (to move it out of the way) since it wasn’t inside a locked small container, (b) neither could RNH touch it to move it out of her way since that was against the rules once she’d ‘taken control’ of the opened luggage, and therefore, (c) she could not complete her screening.

A supervisor was called, who took about ten to fifteen minutes to arrive. He appraised the situation, stepped forward, lifted the pistol (in its holster) out of the crate, and set it down on the tabletop a foot away. The screener then removed every item in the crate, swabbed the bottom for residue, tested it, and (to her credit) carefully packed everything back the way she’d found it. All in all, this process took a half an hour, which RNH finds unacceptable.

The luggage did arrive on time and without signs of disturbance.

Homebound Travel
The mid/upper 50s white female at the United checkin counter in Jackson, WY was very apprehensive at the sight of RNH's 81mm mortar crate. In fact, she stopped him before he could get to the counter and asked if there was anything dangerous in the case. RNH told her that he was going to need a declaration form, as hewas traveling with an unloaded firearm.

The United staffer asked if it was in a locked container – and RNH indicated that she was looking, in fact, at a locked container. No, she said, was the pistol inside a small locked box inside of my 81mm mortar crate? It was explained to her that it was not. She then informed RNH that he couldn’t fly. RNH offered to show her the TSA regulations that are always in his carry-on, but she said there was no point – hecouldn’t fly. He politely asked her to call a supervisor to assist, and she said it didn’t matter what her United supervisor knew, or would say. It was the *TSA* people who weren’t going to allow RNH to fly.

There were four white male TSA staffers, all 30-55 years of age, standing a short distance away by the CTX machines beside the check-in counters. The United staffer & RNH walked over to them, and they approached their side of the boundary with interest, having seen the big clanking box. The United rep explained the problem to them with some urgency… and they looked at her like she was being silly. They explained to her that she was incorrect, and that there was nothing wrong with the metal luggage. From that point on, she was completely cooperative & completed the check-in.

RNH points out something interesting... the United Airlines declaration card bears instructions that say, "United Agent: Issue Firearm (FR) bag tag and enter WEAP SSR." So it sounds like this airline most surely has an entry in their Special Service Request Code database that has to do with firearms.

RNH walked the crate over to the TSA screening area without the United check-in agent. Two of the TSA officers approached him with some interest, wanting to know whether his luggage was army surplus – a mortar crate? They were very tickled to correctly identify it as an 81mm mortar case, and everyone had a good laugh. RNH told them I’d taken care to sand off the stencils with scary words like, ‘explosive projectile’, and replace them with larger stencils saying, "Gucci". There were no problems with the TSA in Wyoming, and they didn’t need him to open the case. The CTX scan satisfied them. The ammo box was on its side, and they did ask after the initial scan if the ammo was in an approved container. They took RNH's affirmative answer without challenge or further verification, and he was on his way.

Final Details & Thoughts
We really need to get to the bottom of why United Airlines feels it is necessary to assign a special SSR code to the luggage of passengers who are flying with firearms.

Air Travel Ratings
If you don't have the time or the desire to read the full text of someone's account of air travel, you can simply refer to the rating shown at the conclusion of each portion of that person's journey. The following criteria are used in assigning these ratings...

Four Stars	check-in - no hassle, no delay screening - in full view, lock and unlock yourself luggage - all on time and intact
Three Stars	check-in - some delay or mild hassle screening - somewhat obscured, locking and unlocking yourself or it's done directly in front of you luggage - all on time and intact
Two Stars	check-in - major delay or major hassle screening - in a room or area that you could not enter and could barely observe luggage - luggage opened non-destructively
One Star	check-in - flight missed or passenger delayed from flying, properly packed items denied as luggage screening - luggage unlocked and opened totally in another area fully removed from you luggage - destructive entry into luggage and/or tampering with firearms
Zero Stars	This is a special category for outright theft, loss, or damage of firearms during air travel
half-star results are possible... naturally, they involve partial or mitigated problems that somehow fall in-between the above categories