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IP: Firearms as checked baggage - please show it at the ticketcounter (and try not to get shot)
From: David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>
Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 13:18:47 -0400
-----Original Message----- From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org> Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 11:22:38 To: <farber () cis upenn edu> Subject: Firearms as checked baggage - please show it at the ticket counter (and try not to get shot) Dave - here's the relevant part of a letter I am sending to United Airlines and the new TSA entity. Feel free to post on IP if you like....it shows once again how the rules are made up as you go along in the wacky world of air travel........ <snip> While flying from Dulles to Miami last Wednesday, I checked my duffel bag at the counter and declared - as I often do - to the ticket agent that the bag was locked and contained an unloaded firearm. She gave me the orange card to fill out certifying under federal law that the weapon was unloaded. I have flown with a weapon on several occasions - before and since 0911 - and never had a problem checking my bag in to ride "under the plane" as federal law requires. After I completed the card and placed it inside my bag, the United counter agent told me that she needed to "see the weapon" to "insure it was unloaded." She wanted me to essentially withdraw my weapon, clear it, and show it to her! This was during the afternoon rush-hour at Dulles Airport. There were easily 800 people in my vicinity waiting to either check-in at United or go through the three-ring circus known as airport security. Not only that, but a few weeks ago someone in LAX was killed while shooting at folks in the El Al ticket counter....so it's a good bet that both the counter agents and people waiting to check-in are slightly on-edge at the slightest hint of trouble....after all, in today's days of 'heightened security' it seems being scared of one's shadow is the accepted norm in America. And yet I'm being asked to pull a pistol out of my bag in clear sight of so many people and armed security personnel at a major airport. I'm not stupid or suicidal - although she moved on to another customer, I called her back over and made her bend down to look at the weapon while it was still *inside* my bag and out of sight of the rest of the folks in the terminal. Clearing the weapon and showing her the empty magazine, she then agreed to check my bag and let me on my way. (I will add that when returning from Miami yesterday evening, I declared my weapon and checked my bag with no problem from the counter. Nobody asked to see it.) It seems United - while in my opinion the best major domestic airline - has a problem with some of their counter agents inventing their own 'increased security measures' and arbitrarily applying them to passengers without considering the potential ramifications or unintended consequences of their actions. I wonder if I'd be here today (and not under arrest, wounded, or killed) if someone saw me, panicked, and called security even though I was simply, - and quietly - complying with this United agent's directions. If there's a new federal standard for checking firearms through as baggage, it should be made public, and not left up to the individual employee to decide what is and is not appropriate - or increased - security for such items. (Think about it - how many average people even *know* what a properly-cleared and unloaded pistol looks like?) Making up the rules as you go is not condusive to good, effective security. Rick infowarrior.org For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: Firearms as checked baggage - please show it at the ticketcounter (and try not to get shot) David Farber (Aug 05)