Gun Wielding Maniac
Member
I've been sitting on this for a while. I told it to a few friends, who recommended that I post this here to see what you guys think.
Over the Christmas holidays, I typically fly out to Arizona to stay with family. It isnt quite as traditional to have the christmas tree up in such warm climes, but I put up with it to get a break from the drab weather in KY for a few days. My stepfather is a member of a local gun club near Phoenix and we often go shooting together while I was there. I brought with me an FN High Power, which I was going to take up to Don Williams, near Prescott, to have customized while I was there. I'd also brought my XD-9 for bang-bang fun. The following incident happened while I was preparing to board the plane. It just goes to show what can happen in our ridiculously risk averse bureaucracy.
I was checking two bags to go to Arizona. Inside one of the bags I had a locked combination case with two pistols. As is customary, I went to the terminal and while checking the bags told them I needed to declare a couple of firearms. The lady had me open up the box and show the guns were unloaded. While she was rooting around in there, she found my little bottle of mace. Now, I've carried this locked away in this box on several airplane flights before this with no problems. But today, this corpulent lady told me I wasnt allowed to have it. I asked if she could mail it back to my place and she shook her head, saying she'd have to dispose of it. I guess the look on my face told her how I felt about that, cause she asked me if there was a problem. I told her no, take it, cause I didnt have anyone who could take the mace back home with them. So, I got the firearms declared and carried them over to the X-ray machine. She told me I could go, since the pistols were declared, but I knew that sometimes the TSA guys like to open the lock boxs again, despite the declaration. If you arent there to give the combo, they'll break it right open.
Sure enough, they called me over. They had a young lady look through my lock box. She called over her foreman and pointed to soemthing in the box. He picked up his radio and started calling people. I asked if there was a problem and she said "we've found a round. You can't have that." I pointed out to her that it was quite allright to have ammunition with the guns, provided they were not IN the guns. Further, I'd been quite sure that there were no loose rounds rolling around in the case. I asked to see what she'd found. She picked it up and showed me. It was a snap cap.
A snap cap is a plastic or aluminum dummy round, lacking any powder, primer, or indeed, any separate pieces. This one was milled of solid aluminum and was clearly marked snap cap on the bottom. I told her this was a dummy round and she didnt know what I was talking about. When her foreman came back, I told him the same and he said "We'll let the professionals make that assertion." I blinked. Wasnt he the professional?
Shortly thereafter, the Louisville Police Department came over to take a look. Yep, the TSA called the cops on me :B The cop, a middle aged man with a gut, looked at the snap cap for a few seconds, rolling it over in his hands and saying, "We're going to have to confiscate this. Its a prohibited item." I just stood flabbergasted for a few seconds. I told the cop it was a dummy round, a snap cap, totally lacking powder and he just looked at me blankly. They took the round and told me I could seal the box, after fumbling with my items inside.
As you can imagine, I was quite turned off by this and even more so at the sight of the woman who had confiscated my Mace STILL holding and twirling it around on her finger as I walked by. Obviously, she had no intention of destroying it and likely, it ended up in her purse :b.
The irony of the situation is this. I'd carried ammunition and the mace as well as a good knife in my lockbox before with no problems whatsoever. More irony, the idiotic TSA people and the cops BOTH failed to look in the the speedloader I had sitting right next to the pistols. Inside was a Browning High Power magazine loaded with 13 rounds of Speer 124 grain +P 9mm ammunition. Quite the thorough search, there.
To add insult to injury, as I was waiting to board the plane, with only a few minutes left before it took off, my name was publically annouced over the intercomm, requesting me to come back to the security check point. I rushed back there, wondering what the hell they were going to steal from me now. Turns out they wanted to fill out a POLICE REPORT on the incident and needed my ID, phone number, contact info, etc. I barely made it back to my plane.
I have to say that this incident has turned me off from flying. I caution those of you who fly with firearms to be discrete and dont carry anything that might give the people there an excuse to steal.
Over the Christmas holidays, I typically fly out to Arizona to stay with family. It isnt quite as traditional to have the christmas tree up in such warm climes, but I put up with it to get a break from the drab weather in KY for a few days. My stepfather is a member of a local gun club near Phoenix and we often go shooting together while I was there. I brought with me an FN High Power, which I was going to take up to Don Williams, near Prescott, to have customized while I was there. I'd also brought my XD-9 for bang-bang fun. The following incident happened while I was preparing to board the plane. It just goes to show what can happen in our ridiculously risk averse bureaucracy.
I was checking two bags to go to Arizona. Inside one of the bags I had a locked combination case with two pistols. As is customary, I went to the terminal and while checking the bags told them I needed to declare a couple of firearms. The lady had me open up the box and show the guns were unloaded. While she was rooting around in there, she found my little bottle of mace. Now, I've carried this locked away in this box on several airplane flights before this with no problems. But today, this corpulent lady told me I wasnt allowed to have it. I asked if she could mail it back to my place and she shook her head, saying she'd have to dispose of it. I guess the look on my face told her how I felt about that, cause she asked me if there was a problem. I told her no, take it, cause I didnt have anyone who could take the mace back home with them. So, I got the firearms declared and carried them over to the X-ray machine. She told me I could go, since the pistols were declared, but I knew that sometimes the TSA guys like to open the lock boxs again, despite the declaration. If you arent there to give the combo, they'll break it right open.
Sure enough, they called me over. They had a young lady look through my lock box. She called over her foreman and pointed to soemthing in the box. He picked up his radio and started calling people. I asked if there was a problem and she said "we've found a round. You can't have that." I pointed out to her that it was quite allright to have ammunition with the guns, provided they were not IN the guns. Further, I'd been quite sure that there were no loose rounds rolling around in the case. I asked to see what she'd found. She picked it up and showed me. It was a snap cap.
A snap cap is a plastic or aluminum dummy round, lacking any powder, primer, or indeed, any separate pieces. This one was milled of solid aluminum and was clearly marked snap cap on the bottom. I told her this was a dummy round and she didnt know what I was talking about. When her foreman came back, I told him the same and he said "We'll let the professionals make that assertion." I blinked. Wasnt he the professional?
Shortly thereafter, the Louisville Police Department came over to take a look. Yep, the TSA called the cops on me :B The cop, a middle aged man with a gut, looked at the snap cap for a few seconds, rolling it over in his hands and saying, "We're going to have to confiscate this. Its a prohibited item." I just stood flabbergasted for a few seconds. I told the cop it was a dummy round, a snap cap, totally lacking powder and he just looked at me blankly. They took the round and told me I could seal the box, after fumbling with my items inside.
As you can imagine, I was quite turned off by this and even more so at the sight of the woman who had confiscated my Mace STILL holding and twirling it around on her finger as I walked by. Obviously, she had no intention of destroying it and likely, it ended up in her purse :b.
The irony of the situation is this. I'd carried ammunition and the mace as well as a good knife in my lockbox before with no problems whatsoever. More irony, the idiotic TSA people and the cops BOTH failed to look in the the speedloader I had sitting right next to the pistols. Inside was a Browning High Power magazine loaded with 13 rounds of Speer 124 grain +P 9mm ammunition. Quite the thorough search, there.
To add insult to injury, as I was waiting to board the plane, with only a few minutes left before it took off, my name was publically annouced over the intercomm, requesting me to come back to the security check point. I rushed back there, wondering what the hell they were going to steal from me now. Turns out they wanted to fill out a POLICE REPORT on the incident and needed my ID, phone number, contact info, etc. I barely made it back to my plane.
I have to say that this incident has turned me off from flying. I caution those of you who fly with firearms to be discrete and dont carry anything that might give the people there an excuse to steal.
