glockgirl51
New member
Greetings!
I thought I would post about our experience with flying Delta from Detroit to Tampa this week. We are both new to gun ownership so we were a bit leery of flying with our new Glocks. But, we have received our CPL's and we are serious about our right to carry so we decided to not go a week without carrying since Florida accepts our Michigan CPL.
We purchased a locking metal box with a cable for each Glock. The boxes are approved for air travel and we also use them in our car when we cannot carry our pistol and need to secure them in our car. I attached the cable to the frame of our suitcase and, although it is not required, I put the magazine lock on each Glock before securing them in their respective metal box. These locks came with the Glocks and we had not used them yet. I thought it might be a good idea to use the locks for air travel. Mostly, I wanted to make sure to frustrate any would-be thief by making it hard to use my Glock if they were able to somehow steal it from my suitcase. I also packed the ammo and all of the magazines in another suitcase. This, however, is where I made a bit of a mistake. I had packed each Glock in a separate suitcase. So, when we went to the Delta ticket counter to declare our firearms, we had to open all three suitcases. It wasn't a major problem, but, it did add a few extra minutes to our check-in process. When we return home next week, we will put both Glocks and the ammo in one suitcase. We can put the magazines in another suitcase but won't have to open it for the check-in process.
The check-in process was very simple. They wanted us to let them see the ammo (to make sure it was packed in an original box or an acceptable box) and to see the case we had for our pistols. I only had to open one pistol case for the check-in agent and, when she saw the magazine lock on the pistol, she didn't make us unlock the other case. We had to sign an orange card claiming that the pistols were unloaded (one for each pistol) and she taped this orange card on each of the pistol cases. We locked the pistol cases ourselves and kept our keys with us. We also lock our suitcases but, as you probably know, the airlines can open any suitcase locks. They claim, and I want to believe, they cannot open our pistol cases since we had the keys with us.
Anyway, that was it. No problems at all. We checked that our pistols were still in the cases when we retrieved our suitcases upon arrival to Tampa and all was fine. The lady who checked us in at Detroit Metro was very nice and she was impressed that I had my own pistol. She said her husband carries but she never has even shot a gun. She said she was afraid to shoot and had always been afraid of guns. I thanked her but thought, well, it is probably good she just lets her husband handle it if she is afraid. I didn't have time to go into the details of why I have found gun ownership necessary and fun since we still needed to go through security to catch our flight. Hopefully she will come into contact with someone who has the time to encourage her some day soon.
But, overall, it was a painless experience. I encourage everyone to travel with your firearm if you fly. It isn't difficult at all.
Happy travels!
I thought I would post about our experience with flying Delta from Detroit to Tampa this week. We are both new to gun ownership so we were a bit leery of flying with our new Glocks. But, we have received our CPL's and we are serious about our right to carry so we decided to not go a week without carrying since Florida accepts our Michigan CPL.
We purchased a locking metal box with a cable for each Glock. The boxes are approved for air travel and we also use them in our car when we cannot carry our pistol and need to secure them in our car. I attached the cable to the frame of our suitcase and, although it is not required, I put the magazine lock on each Glock before securing them in their respective metal box. These locks came with the Glocks and we had not used them yet. I thought it might be a good idea to use the locks for air travel. Mostly, I wanted to make sure to frustrate any would-be thief by making it hard to use my Glock if they were able to somehow steal it from my suitcase. I also packed the ammo and all of the magazines in another suitcase. This, however, is where I made a bit of a mistake. I had packed each Glock in a separate suitcase. So, when we went to the Delta ticket counter to declare our firearms, we had to open all three suitcases. It wasn't a major problem, but, it did add a few extra minutes to our check-in process. When we return home next week, we will put both Glocks and the ammo in one suitcase. We can put the magazines in another suitcase but won't have to open it for the check-in process.
The check-in process was very simple. They wanted us to let them see the ammo (to make sure it was packed in an original box or an acceptable box) and to see the case we had for our pistols. I only had to open one pistol case for the check-in agent and, when she saw the magazine lock on the pistol, she didn't make us unlock the other case. We had to sign an orange card claiming that the pistols were unloaded (one for each pistol) and she taped this orange card on each of the pistol cases. We locked the pistol cases ourselves and kept our keys with us. We also lock our suitcases but, as you probably know, the airlines can open any suitcase locks. They claim, and I want to believe, they cannot open our pistol cases since we had the keys with us.
Anyway, that was it. No problems at all. We checked that our pistols were still in the cases when we retrieved our suitcases upon arrival to Tampa and all was fine. The lady who checked us in at Detroit Metro was very nice and she was impressed that I had my own pistol. She said her husband carries but she never has even shot a gun. She said she was afraid to shoot and had always been afraid of guns. I thanked her but thought, well, it is probably good she just lets her husband handle it if she is afraid. I didn't have time to go into the details of why I have found gun ownership necessary and fun since we still needed to go through security to catch our flight. Hopefully she will come into contact with someone who has the time to encourage her some day soon.
But, overall, it was a painless experience. I encourage everyone to travel with your firearm if you fly. It isn't difficult at all.
Happy travels!
