Air travel question

[springer]

Since you have decided that you won't declare it, and TSA folks will likely have a hard time figuring out whether it is real or a replica, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

Why not avoid the hassle and just ship it to yourself via UPS?

As I stated previously, The TSA doesn't care if there is a firearm in your checked bag.

 

[M1911]

As I stated previously, The TSA doesn't care if there is a firearm in your checked bag.

They sure do if you haven't declared it. http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1666.shtm

 

[springer]

They sure do if you haven't declared it. http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1666.shtm

There is no mechanism for them to check if you have declared your firearm. By simply telling the ticket agent that you have a firearm to declare you have satisfied FAR 108.203. The website which you have pointed to is simply a re-hash of some of the requirements of FAR 108.203. I would rather read the regulation myself than taking legal advice from a website.

 

[M1911]

springer, you are going around in circles. Do we agree that you are required to declare the firearm to the ticket agent or not?

 

[icyclefar]

I have a very hard time believing that someone was detained for placing cap guns in a checked bag in New Mexico. This seems quite implausible to me.

Not cap guns, but really sweet replicas of Cowboy guns, in really nice leather holsters! The gun belt had silver stars and the whole works, including all the extra ammo in those little loop thingies.

But then again, who am I to tell you what is plausible or not.

 

[springer]

springer, you are going around in circles. Do we agree that you are required to declare the firearm to the ticket agent or not?

Of a course you must declare a firearm it is required by the FARs. My point is that you don’t need to do anything that is not required by the airline’s contract of carriage or the FARs, no matter how insistent misinformed TSA and airline employees are. As I stated previously, traveling with firearms is quite easy and painless as long as you know the FARs and the airline regulations. I get worked up when people tell tall tales of (it’s always a friend) who was hassled attempting to check a gun. The story almost always ends with the person being subjected to a cavity search in some back room. I’ve flown 50+ times since 9/11 with firearms and I’ve only had one minor incident in that time. That’s why I have a hard time believing that people are being anally probed because they tried to check a nerf bazooka. I check real, scary, black, evil guns (and up to 10 pounds of ammo) and never have any problems. The airlines and TSA run at such lean and mean, low staffing levels that they don’t have the time or inclination to sweat you. I found quite the opposite. If your standing at the end of a long line at a ticket counter, and someone is pulling people with close flights out of the line to move them up front, tell them that you need to check a firearm and you are moved to the front of the line regardless of when your departure time is. This is real nice if you aren’t elite status on that airline. Airline employees seem to be nicer to me when I am checking a firearm. The three exceptions to this though is LGA, JFK and that US air ticket agent that had the .300 Win Mag fired at him. Don’t try to check a gun in New York or New Jersey. They don’t seem to understand that they are part of the United States.

 

[M1911]

And that has what, exactly, to do with anything I have posted?

 

[springer]

And that has what, exactly, to do with anything I have posted?

It doesn't have much to do with what you stated. I just stated that I agree that you must declare a firearm, and I clarified why I was going in circles. Other peoples stories of radiation blocking paper cards and back room probings get me worked up (even though that sounds bad).