Emily Taylor:
You know what I did get today though, actually was I heard that my vehicle is my roving castle. So that Texas law applies anytime I'm anywhere else in the country, as long as I'm in my Texas vehicle.
Richard Hayes:
That's similar enough.
Emily Taylor:
That would be great if true.
Richard Hayes:
We are the armed attorneys today. We are providing an update on flying with your firearm in 2024. We're going to be talking about some rookie mistakes, the process you need to go through, what happens if your flight gets diverted to a two, a hostile jurisdiction and so much more. But before we begin, show your support for the Second Amendment by hitting that like button.
Emily Taylor:
Well, I for one, will say that flying with a firearm, although it's nice, it's nice to be protected where you land. I am the person who gets to the airport like 10 minutes before I need to board. And so it really does jam that, jam that process up.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah, but I'll say, I mean, I think millions of folks fly with their firearms probably every week.
Emily Taylor:
Oh yeah.
Richard Hayes:
TSA airlines, they're all used to this. If you've never done it before, it's worth going over to the TSA website just to browse their requirements. We're going to be going through those requirements, but we'll have that linked in the description below. But it's one of those things that I think people are maybe needlessly afraid of.
Emily Taylor:
Yeah, it really is not. I mean, I will say, as much as I don't like to get there early, it's never added more than an extra five minutes, 10 minutes tops to my check-in time. It's really not that bad and everyone's airline is going to vary, but I'm a Southwest gal and they're just so easy. You walk up, nobody's surprised. They're just like, oh, cool. Sign your little ticket. There you go.
Richard Hayes:
Well, and I think we should start with kind of the legal requirements. And the first one that a lot of people overlook is legal start and legal finish. So the TSA will have their guidelines up on their website, but they don't really talk too much about, Hey, make sure that the place that you're landing, you can legally possess the firearm.
Emily Taylor:
No, and they will not stop you.
Richard Hayes:
No,
Emily Taylor:
They will. If you're like, here I am in Texas, I'm flying to New York, here's my gun. They're not going to be like, oh, buddy. They're going to be like, okay, there. You enjoy what happens when you land in New York with, I mean, it is not something they're not taking care of you in that respect. But I think the other thing that we need to remind people of is it's not just like if you're like, oh, well, I'm actually staying in Pennsylvania, but I'm stopping in New York. Your destination is not Pennsylvania. Your destination is where you land in New York and you drive to Pennsylvania, your destination is New York. And so people I think get confused about that all the time where they're like, no, I'm going to blank, but I'm spending one night in name your bad state. Well, your destination, if you're spending a night there is your bad state. You can't have it.
Richard Hayes:
Okay. Assuming that you can lawfully possess the state that you're departing from where you're landing, the next thing that you need to know is that firearms, ammunition, accessories, except for one, and we'll talk about it, they have to travel as checked baggage only.
Emily Taylor:
Yes. And there is unfortunately, I mean, I know people are like, but what about this thing that's not actually a firearm? What about I want to fly with my suppressor? Well, you can't do anything with a suppressor alone on a flight. Why can't I have that in my carry on luggage? Well, because the
Richard Hayes:
Law,
Emily Taylor:
Because the law says no,
Richard Hayes:
I always crack up when I see active duty military going through TSA with their guns, but then they have their fingernail clippers confiscated. Yeah. The TSA doesn't make a lot of sense, but what this looks like for long guns, most long gun cases, the firearm has to be contained inside of a hard sided lockable container. We'll talk about those requirements a little bit more. Most handgun boxes do not meet the minimum size requirements, and so they'll need to travel in. You'll have your handgun case and it'll go inside of a larger piece of check luggage. Now, the logistics of it are before you get to the airport, what we'd recommend is completely unloading your firearm and unloading your magazine, not having ammunition contained inside of your magazine. The TSA will consider that a loaded firearm for their purposes, and the ammunition can be stored in the same box as the lockable container. We recommend just traveling in the manufacturer's packaging, but it needs to be completely concealed. So if you have a plastic box like aftermarket, a wood box, the manufacturer's packaging, that's ideal.
Emily Taylor:
And some airlines actually impose greater restrictions. So I think technically Southwest says they want you to use only the original cardboard manufacturer's packaging for your ammunition. Now, I don't think they're going to stop you if it's in a plastic ammunition case, but you might want to just look on their website too. Look at what your airline says because they can impose stricter requirements and they could always just turn you away and tell.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah. So the kind of rookie mistake I see folks making are leaving the magazines full of firearm cartridges, make sure that there's no ammunition in the magazine. So you got your box here. Imagine you have on a semi-automatic firearm, the slide lock back magazine empty, sitting next to it in the box, you got your ammo and your manufacturer's packaging sitting next to it in the same box. Well, when you get to the airport, what you'll do is you'll go to your airlines check-in counter, and you have to declare your firearm when you're flying. So let 'em know, Hey, I'm flying with a firearm today. Most of the time they'll have you sign a form, they'll provide you a card, you'll place that in the bag. But sometimes they'll want you to open up the box in their presence to confirm it's unloaded. Sometimes they don't care. Sometimes they just throw the card in there. But apart from that, the next step is locking it.
Emily Taylor:
Yes. And you are going to want to put a lock through each place on the hard sided case that you can put a lock. And I will tell you, because I made this mistake once, and luckily I brought extra locks with me because I had some nightmare scenario. What if I lose locks when I get to my destination? What if TSA does end up cutting them or destroying? So anyway, so I went and I checked in shotguns, which is your exception to things going in your bags. I mean, if you have a long gun, it's going to be in its own hard side of locking case. It's actually not going to come out on the luggage carousel,
So you're going to have to go pick it up outside of that in the secure area. But they called me back in, I checked everything. Airline took possession, I went through security. And then you hear it's never a good thing when you hear your name called to return to return to the front because TSA wants to talk to you. And sure enough, I got there and they were like, looky what we can do. And I had missed a hole for a lock and they could kind of pry open the case with my shotgun. And sure. They were like, we can't accept it. And so luckily I had another lock and I popped it on and they took it back.
Richard Hayes:
So ideally every place ILI hole that's capable of accepting a lock, placing a lock there, the TSA might otherwise say somebody could pry this open
Emily Taylor:
If they can pry it open and they will send it back to you. But then that begs the question, what kind of lock? What kind of lock, Richard?
Richard Hayes:
Well, the TSA, and they've clarified this on their website, they said you can use any lock that you want, but I think that that's a little deceptive.
Emily Taylor:
Yeah. So you'll see the Ts A approved locks. You can tell because they've got this, maybe we flash that up on the screen so we can see this little red diamond pattern on it. That's great. Those are TSA approved. What does that mean if they say you can actually use any lock you want? Well, it means they have that, their special key that's going to pop universally that lock so they can inspect your firearm, which sounds like you don't want that, but you absolutely want them to be able to pop it because they are going to look inside. They are going to inspect it. And what happens if they can't unlock your lock?
Richard Hayes:
Yeah, they cut it.
Emily Taylor:
They cut your lock. Right. So I mean, it is my opinion, best practice, get one of the TSA approved locks. It just makes your life a lot easier when they can key it open, then they put it back and you are not down a lock.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah. Alright, so legal start. Legal finish. We properly checked our firearm at our counter before we get to where you pick up your bag, let's talk about the one accessory that can travel with you on the plane as carry-on.
Emily Taylor:
And that would be your rifle scope.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah. Some of those optics. I was talking to a buddy yesterday. His optic is twice the price of his gun.
Emily Taylor:
Yeah, no, they get really expensive.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah, really expensive. So I understand. I mean you see that with camera equipment and other things. These are pretty expensive devices, very fragile. I don't know if you've seen some of those baggage handling videos. It's not an ideal environment for a very expensive rifle
Emily Taylor:
Scope. Yep. Fair enough. You've landed, where do you get your bags ideally, as long as it's not its own long gun, it's just going to come out on the same carousel that it normally would,
Richard Hayes:
Right? Yeah. I'd say it's about 50 50. It may just be on the carousel with all the other bags. The other place, let's say you're hanging out there, you've seen all the bags that go around a couple of times and your bag's not there. The likely place that it is is your airline's baggage claim counter in the baggage claim area,
Emily Taylor:
Which has always confused me because they're not supposed to put anything on the outside of your bag to indicate there's a firearm within because you don't want someone to steal it at carousel. So then how are they doing that and putting it aside, I've always wondered reasonable minds I suppose can come up with the explanations there. But technically if you see when you give them your bag that they have placed anything on the outside of your bag to indicate there's a firearm within, they're not supposed to do that.
Richard Hayes:
And when you, let's say your bag does end up in that kind of segregated area with your airline, right? What they will do, especially with rifle cases, they'll want to check your ID before handing, releasing the bag to you. They want to make sure, hey, this is actually your bag. They're not performing a background check or anything like that. They want to make sure that you're the person who owns the luggage.
Emily Taylor:
And I think also remember that you are bound by the law in the state that you're landing in. You need to have researched ahead of time to see. Sometimes you go somewhere where some firearms are not legal. Sometimes you go somewhere where they have really bizarre carry laws. You need to have done the research ahead of time if you can and if you have access spoken to a lawyer in that state who can give you the dos and the don'ts before you land. Because not nobody's going to care that you're like, well, hold on. I am actually from Colorado and I had no idea this was illegal in Arizona. They don't care. They're going to arrest you anyway.
Richard Hayes:
That's my least favorite call. I'm having an emergency. What's going on? I'm driving into this other state.
Emily Taylor:
Oh yeah. Especially when it's the middle of the night. It's like, no, no, no, no.
Richard Hayes:
Two eight. You should have called ahead of time. But yes, familiarize yourself with that states a lot. And also, I don't know where there's some rumors circulating online that if your state has constitutional carry, then you can constitutional carry in other states. Have you encountered
Emily Taylor:
That? I have not.
Richard Hayes:
Okay. I've had a couple of those recently. No, no. You follow the law in the state that you're in. Maybe they require a license or permit. Hopefully they have reciprocity with your license. Maybe they have constitutional carry and you qualify and no licenses needed. But make sure to be familiar with the laws in that state.
Emily Taylor:
Oh, you know what I did get today though, actually was I heard that my vehicle is my roving castle. So that Texas law applies anytime I'm anywhere else in the country. As long as I'm in my Texas vehicle.
Richard Hayes:
That's similar enough.
Emily Taylor:
That would be great if true.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah. I'll just tell you, if you're in New York, they see your plates from a mile away.
Emily Taylor:
Oh yeah. It's actually, you're doing worse if you're in a Texas vehicle. If you're in New York,
Richard Hayes:
For sure, it's the Ralph, I'm in danger. But here's a last question that comes up from time to time. Alright. Legal start. Legal finish. You're in the air. Well, things happen. Medical emergencies, weather changes. Your flight gets diverted to a hostile jurisdiction. A jurisdiction does not respect the second amendment or your right to keep and bear arms. What do you do if you find yourself in that scenario?
Emily Taylor:
Don't take possession of your bags. That's the best thing you do. Not take possession. Because once you take possession, they don't care. They don't care. You didn't want to be in Chicago, they don't care. You didn't want to be in New York. You have possession of a firearm in a place, you're not allowed to have it.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah. So what does that look like? Well, alright, you land, they say, Hey, we're going to offload all these bags. You're at baggage claim number, whatever. You're rebooked in the morning.
Emily Taylor:
Fly out.
Richard Hayes:
Yeah. Go talk to your airline. Let 'em know you're refusing to take or accept your bags. You'd like them forwarded to the final destination and they will work with you. We don't want you getting hit with this with a random out-of-state weapons. Crime.
Emily Taylor:
Nope.
Richard Hayes:
But we hope you enjoyed this discussion. If you did, consider subscribing, hitting that like button and help us fight the anti two A algorithm by sharing this video
Emily Taylor:
And let us know, have you flown with your gun? Did you find it easy, difficult, or somewhere in between? Until next time, for the armed attorneys.
Credit: Armed Attorneys