MWAA's new regulations take effect on December 1. These regulations will no longer make it illegal to have a weapon on the roads around Reagan or Dulles airports. It will also be legal to possess a gun
anywhere except in the terminal building or any building that opens onto a runway. You may possess a gun in the terminal only if it is unloaded, encased in checked luggage, and declared.
Here is the story in the Washington Post (thanks to Jonathan Rea for the link):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13174-2004Oct6.html
VCDL still objects to the new regulations because they exceed state law and in turn they breach the agreement between the General Assembly and MWAA). State law does not prohibit carry in buildings other than the passenger terminal. Also, you still have a problem at Reagan and Dulles if you are taking your gun to customs before an international trip. The issue of international travel is supposed to be considered at some point by MWAA. If they had just let state law apply, they wouldn't have these problems. But they just HAD to do their own thing.
At the MWAA hearing last month on this regulation change, everyone
(almost 60 of us) carried concealed. Yet the Post says, "The action comes after pressure from an increasingly high-profile Virginia gun rights group whose members have taken to wearing firearms on their hips in public places to make their case."
Note this NoVA: "Officials also said they never enforced the gun rules on roadways because they didn't consider those drivers a threat." They are talking about external roadways, like Rt. 28 and the Dulles Toll Road. But, they have been enforcing their regulations on roadways and parking areas inside the airport property proper: "From January to September, authority police arrested 50 people on charges of weapons violations in airport terminals; eight were charged with possession of dangerous weapons on authority roadways or in garages, said authority spokeswoman Tara Hamilton."
Jim Sollo of VAHV says, "We think just the whole idea of guns around
terminals is not a good idea. We think it puts additional pressure and stress on police who will probably stop and question a person they see openly carrying a weapon, particularly around an airport."
But, the TSA just shrugged and airport security experts aren't worried. In fact, I like the last paragraph, where Douglas Baird, an aviation security consultant says, "It doesn't raise any concerns with me because if you have the authority of the state to be armed, I don't see why you can't be armed at an airport."
I like the way Mr. Baird thinks. What he suggests is our goal over the next 2 years.
