IP: Firearms as checked baggage - please show it at the ticketcounter (and try not to get shot)

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

-----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










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