I flew out of Houston Hobby last week and wanted to let you in on my TSA story.  I walk up to the counted with my carry on, suit case, pelican rifle case and a small pelican case for ammo.

we went thru the normal name, ID and flight check in deal and I say "I need to declare and check in two weapons and some ammo".  the lady behind the counter says "um, ok", so she says she will need to call TSA and she tags all the bags, TSA says they will send someone down to inspect the "guns".  about 10 minutes later the lady behind the counter calls back and after 10 more minutes a cute little TSA girl in a white shirt and black "Dockers" shows up to look at my "GUNS".   I open the case with the ammo first.  most is in plastic cases MCM?  there are 12 rounds in speed loader and 6 loose rounds.  I have a CHL and they were the rounds in the gun before I secured it.  everything looks cool to her.  so it gets a little TSA sticker and is placed on the conveyor.  "wait I say"!   I have not put the pad locks on it yet.   The TSA lady yells "stop the Conveyor"!  but the ammo case is already in the bowls of Houston hobby airport so the TSA lady take the pad locks and says she will find the case and put them on.
 
so on to the weapons.  as I am opening the case I say "one is a TC contender and kind of tricky to break the action open so if you need help I will be happy to assist you".  I open the case and she steps up to take a look.  she picks up S&W 629 places her finger on the trigger and points it at me.  I say "please don't point the pistol at me" (she looks at me like a fish in the market) so she point's it at the lady behind the counter who's face goes purple,  then she casually points it around the terminal before putting it down.  she just looks at the contender in the case.  at no time did she pick it up, open the breach or inspect if to see if it was unloaded.  the case gets a little sticker, closed and locked and put on the conveyor.  then my check in suit case gets a TSA sticker with no inspection at all!  

on the return trip from Amarillo airport bags are tagged and I get one TSA inspector one trainee and a TSA supervisor who see me walk in with the rifle case and are standing ready to check my guns.  they open the ammo case and see the loose rounds and speed loaders and tell me to put the rounds in the plastic boxes,   the case has a sticker placed on it, locked and put on the conveyor.  the rifle case is opened, they pick up the S&W and inspect it to be sure it's unloaded without pointing it at anyone.  the rifle is not inspected and the case has a sticker placed on it, locked and put on the conveyor.  

scary!          

Thanks for sharing...I feel much safer now [:D]

I flew out of port Columbus Sunday and this lady from the TSA told me to stop and take off my tennis shoes before I walk thru the metal detector.
She didn't ask me she told me in a very hateful and smart ass manner.
I politely informed her I would not mind to set down and have my shoes ran thru the shot X-Ray machine and have them returned to me after inspection before I walked thru the metal detector.
She then in a huffy puffy manner tells me that is not an option and I would take my shoes off and walk thru the metal detector.
I then asked her how was I supposed to walk thru the metal detector with out my shoes?
She replied with a red face well on your feet!!
I then informed her I was not going to do that how was I supposed to know who ever walked thru the metal detector with bare feet before me did not have a fungus or foot disease?
She replied that was not her problem!!
I am pissed by this time and I informed her again I was not going to take my shoes off and walk no-were!!
She than instructed me to walk thru the metal detector and I would be checked in one of their checking areas.
I walked thru the detector with no problem, then I was placed in one of their holding area's and a nice younger TSA guy took me to one of the inspection areas. He then asked me to take my shoes off so I complied another guy ran them thru the shoe X-ray machine. While awaiting for my shoes the younger TSA guy ask me if I would care to stand up so they run the hand held metal detector over me to complete the inspection?
I informed him just as soon as I received my shoes back, I would stand or walk anywhere.
The younger TSA guy said no problem and after receiving my shoes back the inspection was completed. The younger TSA guy tells me he did not blame me for not walking without my shoes on and he would have not done that either.
I told him I did not appreciate the lady being rude and hateful with me, so he gave me a phone number to call in a complaint.
I had the complaint called in before I made it to the terminal gate.[naughty]
I understand the high security precautions they are taking now, but shit they could do there job with a little more respect for the ticket holders.
No high jack intended 308wood. I just wanted to tell about my TSA experience.[:D]

"It's always good to have an extra set of fingerprints on it..."

Most of the TSA guys/gals at Atlanta's Hartsfield Intl Airport when I flew out recently looked like they didn't care about their jobs. Scary.

CRC

Did you know that you don't have to prove that the weapon is un-loaded. I have an artical writen by a guy who was head of something or other for the FAA and he was saying this in the artical. I think I still have it on my old HD on the home computer I'll try to dig it out, I do believe it was writen post 9-11 too. He mentioned that if they do make a deal of it to have them get an LEO. I'll see what I can find. IT was really interesting reading.

Did they catch your backpack on fire?

Fire aint allowed on da plane.

When I flew to Mobile with my Armalite, the lady at the counter at Wilkes-Barre's idea of checking my rifle was to point it at her coworker and look down the sites. She never worked the charging handle.

My father and I went white. I was too shocked to see where her trigger finger was.


I'm not sure the guy in Mobile who "checked" looked at what was in the case. He just handed me the little red card. I was shocked then too, but at least he didn't assault a coworker.

IF I ever go to Columbus, I'm not going to change my socks for a week! That should teach'em.

Power and ignorance, never a good combination.

Fire! You cannot bring fire on the plane!

mmmmmmmmm...Bratwurst.....
[:P]
oh! .. Sorry...