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Simply put: putting anything you can't replace into checked luggage is foolish. The TSA is a lot more likely to steal your stuff than some random person with a
by cdumler 6y ago
Simply put: putting anything you can't replace into checked luggage is foolish.
The TSA is a lot more likely to steal your stuff than some random person with a printed key. Plus, if you use a real lock, they have the right to clip it off, which is trivial. Don't put stuff of value into checked luggage. Keep it on your person or ship it via a carrier who has insurance.
- panopticon 6y ago> Plus, if you use a real lock, they have the right to clip it off, which is trivial. Life hack: you can pack a stripped AR lower, and it's legally a firearm. You must use a non-TSA lock, and the TSA (nominally) is not allowed to open it. Though your core point is valid: your nylon luggage isn't going to keep anyone determined out.
- kamyarg 6y agoI did not understand, what is a "stripped AR lower"? And why is TSA not allowed to open it? Edit: I guess AR is Assault Rifle?
- panopticon 6y agoIn the US (not sure about your location or the laws in other countries), the part of an AR-15 that qualifies as the "firearm" in the eyes of the law is the lower receiver. It's a machined block of metal and does not do anything on its own. When transporting a firearm through air travel, it's supposed to be locked such that only the owner can open it. So you can claim you're carrying a firearm with nothing but a small-ish piece of metal in your luggage. For illustration: https://i.imgur.com/ARZgZV6.png https://i.imgur.com/ARZgZV6.png. The non-transparent part is the lower receiver. As an aside, the "AR" in AR-15 stands for Armalite Rifle (after the company that originally designed it); not "assault rifle".
- kamyarg 6y agothanks for the explanation. I am not living in US, so not very familiar.
- SAI_Peregrinus 6y agoOr check a metal case with a lock the TSA can't open: buy a flare gun (legally a firearm, cheaper than normal guns), declare it, and have your other valuables in the same bag. Legally firearms must be in checked luggage, without ammunition, in hard cases (not soft bags), locked by a mechanism only the owner can open. But unless you travel with valuables quite often it is definitely cheaper to ship it insured.
- swimfar 6y agoThis sounds like a better idea than flying with AR-15 parts. Less likely to scare people, and less likely to raise flags or get put on some list.
- panopticon 6y agoI feel like a flare gun is more likely to scare than a lower receiver. A flare gun immediately looks like "a gun" whereas a block of metal doesn't look very threatening (assuming you don't have a tacti-cool one with skulls and garbage on it). I only flew with a stripped lower once, and the baggage attendant at the Delta counter had to wave a TSA agent over because they did not believe it was a firearm. I never had an issue checking a handgun though.
- SAI_Peregrinus 6y agoMore likely to scare, but since it's in a sealed case and looks like a firearm it's easier to get the attendant to accept that it is a firearm when checking it. It matches their expectations of what a gun should look like. And since it's in a sealed case nobody unexpected will see it anyway, so scares are unlikely.
- hinkley 6y agoFinding a smallish shoulder bag that I actually loved instead of just tolerated went a long way toward helping me winnow down my traveling kit. You trade a little more up-front hassle at the X-ray machines for keeping an eye on your stuff and not having to bother with the baggage carousel.