A number of TFB readers first got to know me in very early 2018 when my three instructional articles about Flying with Firearms appeared on the blog.  (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)  Since that time, many of you have written to me with tales of your own treatment in our nations’ airports, and I never tire of emails or tweets from the field when the TSA or the airlines give you a smooth – or not so smooth – experience in your travels.

I’ve been on just over 70 flights this year so far, almost all of them with firearms in my checked luggage. Most have been incident-free, but every so often things do not go as planned.

And while I hate to paint a whole state with a broad brush… Florida airports have been among the biggest offenders for me and my team this year.

On multiple separate occasions, my colleagues and I have had locks cut off our gun cases by the TSA in Florida… particularly at MCO – Orlando International Airport.  Much of this has to do with the fact that, maddeningly, sometimes airline employees would acquiesce to our request that we wheel our gun cases to the TSA’s oversized/special screening area where they can be checked right in front of us, but on other occasions we’d watch in horror as our Pelican cases were sent – over our objections – down the conventional luggage belt and into the back room.  With no one from the airlines or the TSA willing to confirm for us that the cases had successfully passed the screening procedure, often my team was forced to march to our gate uncertain of what to expect at our destination.  Cut locks were frequently the result.

The Latest Incident

However, something unprecedented (even for Florida) happened to me this fall as my team and I were departing MCO.  The Orlando airport TSA screeners opted to cut the locks off of my Pelican case while I was still standing right there at check-in and after the Delta staff and I had called down to the bag room and informed them that a gun case was coming.

This was simply too much for me.  Instead of taking it up with the airline and the TSA after-the-fact, I remained right there in the airport and kept escalating and escalating to supervisors and managers until I was speaking with the head of Delta’s Airport Ops team and also an individual who was ostensibly the most senior TSA member at MCO.

The Revised Policy

They both agreed that the system was badly failing gun owners who fly into and (especially) out of Orlando and vowed to change the way that checked luggage is processed when firearms are in play.

I have taken to recording many of my interactions with others while I’m out in public when the topic turns to my firearms.  Here is a video with highlights of the whole morning at MCO…

…for those who prefer to read, allow me to summarize what happened.

My party and I arrived at MCO that day and were first assisted by Gloria from Delta and her supervisor Tosh.  Minutes later, our cases were being sent down on the automated bag belt, even though I emphatically had asked them that the screening be handled at the oversize/special luggage area.  At my urging, Tosh immediately used his desk phone to speak to the TSA as our cases slipped through the plastic curtains.  He informed a screener named Juan that my gun case was coming down the belt.  “The passenger is waiting to make sure it clears,” Tosh told the bag room.  “It’s a hard case, the firearm is locked inside… It’s inside the bag, yes… Ok, alright, sounds good.”

Fifteen minutes later, with no confirmation yet from the TSA as we had expected, Tosh called them again.  Shockingly, it was then that we learned that the locks had been cut off.  I demanded answers and Tosh, along with other Delta staff including Lillian (someone who has seen us repeatedly in Orlando and helped us with our gun cases in the past) summoned very senior individuals to speak with us.

Marissa from Delta and Olga from the TSA came out and took two very different sides in the subsequent conversation:

Olga, being TSA, asserted that her staff had the right to break into any luggage that they wished, at any time, and for any reason.  She considered it unreasonable that the TSA would ever deign to make an effort to contact passengers first.

Marissa, on the other hand, in addition to pointing out that the TSA’s position on the matter was very unhelpful, was deeply apologetic and seemed genuinely interested not just in addressing the immediate matter but actually solving the systemic issues that were repeatedly causing this problem in the Orlando airport.  I’m happy to report that by the end of the conversation, Marissa (with Olga’s agreement) stated that going forward, firearm-containing luggage shall never be sent down unattended on a bag belt.  She informed me that all such cases should be handled at the oversize/special screening area in full view of the gun’s owner and furthermore she assured me that she would be re-training all her front-line Delta staff members on this policy so that it is implemented consistently and all gun-owning air travelers are treated with the same care.

So, if you are flying with firearms out of MCO any time in the future (and you’re booked on Delta Airlines) know that you should be able to stand fast and demand that your gun case be screened at the special zone, directly in your presence.  Or, hopefully, you won’t even have to ask… this should be the experience now for everybody flying with a weapon.

Ironic post-script: during my conversations with everybody about the fact that my gun case locks had been cut, I naturally asked, “How is my luggage traveling in the air right now if it’s not secured?”  It turns out the same TSA staffers who cut my decent Abloy locks opted to re-secure the luggage using some junky TSA-compliant locks they had laying around.  When I then inquired how the TSA expected me to access my belongings when I landed, they stated that I would just have to cut off those locks, as well.

Lucky for me (and I didn’t opt to tell them) I fly with a set of TSA keys in my carry-on bag.  So, I was thankfully able to unlock the case and access anything I needed at my destination… no bolt cutters needed.

my luggage indeed arrived locked… with terrible TSA locks

Here we see a TSA002 marking

The other lock was keyed to the TSA007 key

I keep a set of TSA luggage keys in my carry-on backpack. They have come in handy before, as well.

Both locks opened easily

Many thanks go to the community of security researchers – including @xylit0l @J0hnnyXm4s @DarkSim905 @nite0wl and others – who worked diligently to reverse-engineer the key codes for the TSA Search Alert and SafeSkies locks