Sooo much fun!
I rather you gentlemen line up and kick me in my groin than deal with the Tub Stacking Assholes.
Zero, as in Z-E-R-O common sense and any sort of standard from airport to airport, or even person to person.

I’ve flown into and out of, I don’t know… 60? 70? Different airports, off the top of my head.
No one does anything the same across the board. Well, except for the Tub Stacking Assholes. They’re just assholes.
I’ve flown with guns unless Im leaving the country.
If it’s 1 gun and some mags- it’s in the Glock box with the internal lock.
If it’s multiple guns- Pelican case, 2 key locks.

Some ticket agents freak the hell out, and want to call a SWAT team, most are pretty mellow, and there’s been a small handful that have complemented me on my choice of weapons and were shooters themselves. I hooked one agent for S/W airlines up with a friend that does Concealed Carry classes.

I print up the rules before hitting the airport, just in case…
Yeah, I needed it flying out of Chicago Midway. “Uuhh, that’s not an approved lock”
The fuck it aint! Here’s your rules, show me where it says that!

I have (had) steel “brass knuckles” that are exactly 1 1/2 inches long, and 1/16 inch thick, with what looks like a bottle opener in the center. One and one half inch. A fuckin 3 year old might be able to get their fingers through them!

Tub Stacking Assholes want to make a big deal out of it…
Lil twerp hovering between 80yoa and death, all about 5’ with lifts on, maybe 100lbs thinking he’s Patton with the extra medals on his tsa uniform needs to call his dim-witted and myopic supervisor because “The X-ray caught something!” And I get pointed to the “line of shame”.

I’m thinking it’s my badge.
Nope the knuckles on my keychain.

Now the Supervisor wants to make a big deal out of this.
I tell them to look at the actual size of the item, and that maybe a 3yo can get their fingers through it, and the actual worry about a 3yo armed with brass knuckles of that size is hovering around “.01%”.
The supervisor still wants to make a deal of this, even after I show him a business card (which is bigger than the actual knuckles!) for a side job that my neighbor and I had making metal objects (plasma cutter & CNC machine- custom bottle openers for bars, custom metal fire pits, metal shelves, signs, outdoor propane fire places…) and the brass knuckles with the bottle opener was our logo. And look, they are even numbered! (#2, as Tony has #1)

Nope… the supervisor wants to call the Sheriff because it’s a “replica weapon”! and has this smug look on his face.
Meanwhile, the wife and kids are looking at me like “wtf?”
I’m trying to remain calm, but it’s difficult because “Mike” (the tsa supervisors name at John Wayne Airport” is giving me this attempt at a “mean” look.
The Sheriffs shows up, gets Mikeys side of the story, and how Im carrying an “illegal weapon past the security checkpoint”. The one Sheriff gives me a quizzical look as I laugh out loud. I ask the Sheriffs to lift up my jacket that’s in the tsa tub and to look at my badge, and look inside my wallet for my ID.
tsa dickhead then spouts off “why didn’t you announce your office?” Like this dork needs to know.
“Well, because you massengill swilling myopic twat, Im not preforming any sort of police action, Im not armed, and frankly, go fuck yourself with that lil guys head.”

tub stacking asshole Mike never gave me the opportunity to just relinquish the Knuckles.

The poor Sheriffs…
Meanwhile, Im down my original set of Knuckles, about 30 minutes of my time and aggravation. Somewhere a carry-on bag containing a few sets of shoes is missing… some of you may know the agreement between my wife and I- I don’t ask about her shoes, she doesn’t ask about my guns. So, yeah, she’s got a “thing” for shoes, and is more than slightly upset now.

But at least the Sheriffs were pretty cool about this nonsense.

Don’t worry Mikey, Im sure, somewhere down the line, I’ll probably run into one of his co-workers somewhere, and attempt to re-pay the favor.

Then I get to sit in the same row on the plane with a hacking kid with snot running down his nose like a waterfall, and obviously sick. Not a lot of confidence in his mother between us blocking any snot/cough/virus heading my way….

Well, at least the “meat and potatoes” of the trip went well and got to hang out with my Lil Bro, our families and a bunch of kick-ass Marines at Camp Pendleton. Got to show my kids my old schoolhouse on base, pointed out the window to MCRD San Diego when we landed…

Please hold the applause, as I am in Phoenix on a layover and not home yet.

Phoenix to Midway wasn’t bad, rather smooth flight.
Then I landed. Let the fun begin!

TWO AND A HALF HOURS! Two and half fuckin hours of waiting for my luggage.
It made the plane. I guess with the snow, flights were delayed and all landed around the same time at Midway. Union Baggage handlers are about 2 IQ points above brain dead. They got some luggage off of some of the planes, put it into carts, put some of it on the conveyor belts…

Then the work bell rang.

Fuckin slap-dicks are able to just walk away without finishing the job. There’s about 300+ people waiting around for their bags. Carousels are going round and round, no more bags coming off. WTF!
The poor lady who worked for Southwest Airlines was doing her best. I get it, it’s not her fault, she’s the poor person here, over there ——> are the assmunchers who are able to just leave in the middle of the job.
Things finally get moving again, luggage is coming on the carousels, people are happy.
Hmmm… where’s my garment bag?
Yeah, it got lost in the shit-show of bags. Finally got found, after a TWO AND A HALF HOUR WAIT.

I know it’s more expensive, takes longer, rougher on my Jeep, and my Wife has to pee every 20 minutes or so, but I think I might be driving wherever I need to get to from now on.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CPD SIG,

I really try not to fly anymore if I don't have to. Such a hassle!

I used to fly in and out of Midway every couple of weeks for years.

I used to fly pretty frequently for business or personal travel, but my last trip was before 9/11, so I haven't experienced TSA, over-crowded airports, DEI airline employees, lost luggage, screwed-up rental car reservations, rude passengers...

Next time I have to fly somewhere, I'll walk.

CPD SIG, I hope you're going someplace warm and relaxing for a well-deserved vacation! Keep us posted.

YouTube rabbit holes have brought me to some really vial TSA 1A Audit encounters. Some of the auditors are vial as well, but it just shows its not pinpointed to one certain airport in the country.

I blame it on lack of training.

Nazi Germany hired the stupidest of the stupid for a reason, too.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. said, "You can't professionalize unless you federalize." The vote passed the senate 100-0 following 911.

One thing you can give the .gov, they'll take advantage of the situation/timing to grab additinal powers. Now that they have those additional powers, it'll take an act of congress to relinquish. What are the odds of that?

ABC news story at the time... Even ABC was skeptical of the power grab.

TSA and the USPS need to be buried in the same hole and kept there until they turn into crude oil.

Our “savior” will fix it I’m sure

I’d like to think individually there are some good folks that work for the TSA. But as a whole it’s a cluster.

Would like uniformity with TSA concerning guns. Significant variation such as the process at the Denver airport. After informing the airline agent I have an unloaded firearm, in a locked case Denver mandated me to wait for a TSA person. TSA guy show up and he isn't remotely a full time agent. More like a cheap hire who takes my bag to a large MRI looking device. Not sure what they are looking for? Maybe magazines over 10 rounds? It unnecessarily delays the process.

Ah yes...TSA and firearms. I was flying to a training location (while I was on AD)...I had my M9 and M4 in the govt-provided Pelican case. Checked in at the gate, had my orders and MIL ID. Had to wait until the TSA idiot showed up. So he had to carry it to the scanner...then asked me to open it. I did. Then proceeded to do a swab of the M4 and M9. Watching this, I asked what he was testing for? "It's standard procedure" was his slack-jawed reply.

"I will bet it will come up positive for gun powder residue....because, you know, it's a firearm" I tell him.

"Well sir, we are checking to see if it's been recently fired".....Now I'm looking at him like the idiot he is and tell him "I just shot it yesterday--your mystery is solved....now what? Do I go someplace special?" (referencing "Stripes")

He just gives me a look and proceeds to throw my case down the ramp into the bowels of the airport.

These guys are fucking idiots.

Until I retired, I did not have to worry about screening. Clearing TSA meant more time waiting for a supervisor to find my tiny-ass agency in the Secret Binder (shhhh) and compare my two forms of ID than it would've taken to be scanned and groped, but I was OK with it. I generally flew Southwest and pre-boarded. They figured if I could carry an actual gun into the cabin, they probably didn't have to worry about my bottle of water or the amount of shampoo in the carry-on. I couldn't drink alcohol in-flight, but I generally don't drink in flight anyway.

Now a retired Fed, it's back to "fly like the normies." As a consequence, I no longer fly. I genuinely sympathize with all y'all who because of work or personal circumstances have to. I'll drive if it's CONUS before participating in security theater.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGguy229:
Ah yes...TSA and firearms. I was flying to a training location (while I was on AD)...I had my M9 and M4 in the govt-provided Pelican case.

Before TSA "revised" their secondary guidelines, I saw an active-duty USAF Senior NCO getting effectively strip-searched at the checkpoint... jacket off, everything swabbed, etc. Insult to injury is that he was traveling with a clearly disabled child.

I was waiting for my wife on the other side of screening when he came through, again dressed. Noted some version of this on his pocket:


Correct. He worked in missiles.

If he wanted to bring massive destruction on the populace, he wouldn't have needed a regional Embraer to do it.

Golf clap, TSA... golf clap.

quote:

Did I tell you how much I really like airports and the tsa?

No, I don’t believe so.

Armed with Clear and Global Entry, I’m ready for anything they throw at me.

I fly about 30-35x/year, have TSA Pre and I've largely had no issues thankfully, most of time I'm flying during commuter hours, which is early AM so that seems to reduce the amount of riff-raff and infrequent fliers. Only hiccups was the few times I had two laptops and 4 tablets with me at-once in my pack; every time they needed to do a deeper check with the swabs, and every device needing to go into a separate tub.

CPD Sig hope the rest of your travels are smooth sailing.

Great reminder of the shit I had to deal with when I commuted to Sacramento for work for 6 years. I do not miss the TSA groping sessions at all. Denver was one of the worst places, as was Seattle. No common sense allowed.

TSA got me the last time. They hand searched my son’s backpack and then mine. I asked my son out loud why our bags were being hand searched and the TSA guy pulled my SiGTAC Range Master out and asked if it was mine. I said yes, apologized, and told him to keep it or throw it away. He gave me the option of taking it back to my car, but I think I paid $40 for it, never liked that much because of the half serrated blade, and I didn’t feel like taking the shuttle back to the economy lot then waiting for the next one. I did like the red anodized scales though.

I’ve been perp walked with my rifle cases a few times, but never really had any real trouble with a TSA agent. Now the ticket agents are another story. I had one that insisted I show her my firearm was unloaded. Fine, I unlocked both locks, flip all the latches, open the case, proceed to unpack the clothes I had in the case around my Marlin 1894 in 45/70, then start to pull the gun out to open the action. She says I don’t have to do that because she can see that it’s not loaded. Who knew the have X-Ray vision?

I used to travel a ton many many years ago and knew and followed every rule.

I always carried firearms everywhere I flew. Once I had to fly to Midland, TX and when I was flying out to go back home, I declared my firearms as usual with the airline and then brought the baggage to TSA for screening as checked luggage. I saw the TSA guy stop the belt, talk to others, and then I just sat and waited for a few minutes until I was surrounded by about 12 cops and told not to move. I was pulled aside and Mr. dipstick TSA agent had called the cops because he saw a gun and bullets in my luggage. I later learned he was from Chicago and wasn’t “used” to seeing people with guns. After the cops verified I had packed everything correctly, they apologized. I wanted an apology from idiot TSA agent, but never got one.

Also one time as I was going through the normal security checkpoint, I got pulled aside as they had to closely examine my badge in my wallet that I put in the x-ray bin to not set off the metal detector as they thought it could have sharp points as in being a “throwing star”. Give me a break! Look at the badge and look at the credentials with it! Of course since I got pulled aside, I also got the full search, pat down, hand swap, etc. Yeah, I am the villain you need to be checking!

Put your brain on pause as you go through the TSA line.