Traveling with weapons

[Cascabel]

From time to time, there are questions about traveling with black powder weapons. A couple of things to keep in mind about the following information is that generally, if it LOOKS like a gun, the authorities consider it to be a gun, therefore non-firing replicas get treated the same as real weapons. You don't want to try to explain to a non-knowledgeable gate agent what the difference is !! The other thing to understand is that the following information is correct AS OF THE TIME OF POSTING. Regulations and the interpretation of them by people in charge are subject to change on short notice, or no notice at all !!! Check with the airline you are flying with beforehand. The rules seem to be set in Jell-o, rather than concrete !!!!

Traveling with weapons is not at all difficult. However, keep in mind that You CANNOT bring black powder at all under any circumstances, so empty your powder flask, and wash it out. Plan to have someone have powder available for you where you are going, and also be familiar with whether you can legally possess weapons in the jurisdiction where you are going. This applies mostly to NY, and MA, at this time.

Different airlines have different interpretations of the rules, so there can be slight variations, but the weapons cannot ever be in carry-on baggage. Generally, the weapon must be in a lockable hard case. The best way to be absolutely sure of compliance is that the pistol be in its own lockable hard case, locked, and inside a hard suitcase also locked.

When you arrive at the ticket counter, you must tell them that you have a gun in your luggage. You will then be given a tag that you attach to the gun, and then you lock the case and the suitcase. Sometimes, depending on the local procedures, you need to present the luggage containing the weapon to the TSA people for inspection by hand after getting it tagged at the ticket counter, or it may just go through an x-ray machine. They may ask you to unlock it for inspection. In any event, it gets locked again before it is out of your sight. You could just put the pistol in a small hard pistol case, without it being in a larger suitcase, but I do not recommend it. Small cases are far too easy to steal.

One of the things I do whenever I travel by air is to ALWAYS have a gun in my luggage, even when I am not doing a show. It makes it to where they have to inspect it in front of you, and allow you to lock it. Locking it prevents opportunities for theft after it gets into the baggage room behind closed doors. The TSA employees are notorious for stealing things from luggage during "random" inspections. Also, locking it prevents accidental opening and loss of items during handling. Many times when I worked for the airlines, I saw luggage contents scattered throughout the baggage compartments from burst suitcases.

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