So I am going to New Orleans in Sept. I am flying out there and trying to decide if I can/should carry my glock along. I already looked up repirocity and I am good there. I will be at a work related conference and don't want to have to leave it in the hotel room. So I would love to know if any of you have carried in New Orleans and someone tell me how to check the pistol/ammo for the airline flight.
I think you call the airline prior to find out the procedure then tell them at the counter when you check your luggage and I believe they make you seperate the gun and rounds, but I could be wrong.
GG, I have done it before it is really no big deal. You can find the info below: http://www.packing.org/airlines/ You will also want to check your airlines website to see if they have any additional requirements. Some won't let you carry hollow points and others have stupid rules sometimes. Hope that helps.
Have a hard sided container you can lock and the cheapest little airline padlocks you can find at WalMart. Put the gun in the hardsided container, unloaded, and put a padlock on it, but do not lock it. Put the hard sided container in your suitcase. Put your ammo, still in the box in which it was purchased, inside the suitcase. Put another padlock on the suitcase. Go to the TSA site and print out the information for checking in firearms. Keep it in a manila folder with your travel itinerary. Print out your airline's procedures as well (do not call and ask). These items should stay with your tickets, itinerary, rental car, hotel, and map information in the manila folder. Bring your unlocked items to the check in counter. Do not bring it to the outside check in, or you will wait in line in vain. Upon reaching the counter, declare, "I have a firearm in my checked baggage to declare." This works better than "I have a gun!" Then take out the hardsided container (see why I said not to lock anything?). The airline person will ask if it is unloaded, which you will confirm. He will then hand you a red tag to sign, which you will put inside the hardsided container and close, locking the padlock. Then put this inside your suitcase and lock the other padlock. Caveat: Last time I was at the airport, both the airport person and the TSA person made me put the tag outside the closed container, inside the luggage. I explained to them that this is not the way it has ever been done, and also my opinion of how retarded this method was (what would they do if I checked the hardsided container seperately?), but they insisted, so I figured it would not matter so long as I watched my luggage get locked up and put on the conveyor belt. And so I did. Of course, I always do, and you will see why below. The airline person will then direct you to the TSA with the luggage containing the firearm. You declare the firearm again. They will probably ask for your key. Do not let the key or your firearm out of your sight until the container and the suitcase are locked and you see them placed on the belt to go to the plane. In fact, I never relinquish control of the key, but offer to unlock the locks, if necessary. The same goes for combinations, if that sort of lock is chosen. Do not divulge the combination to anybody, no matter what. This is where having the TSA regulations and instructions from the web site will come in handy, as I have had TSA and airline people try to take my key and take the weapon out of my sight. I always refuse and force them to follow their own instructions and regulations. Last time I flew the joker tried to get me to unlock the luggage and gun and walk away before he locked it back. I refused. Sure enough, he tried to put the gun in an unlocked portion of the luggage, and then deliberately ignored me the first two times I pointed this out to him. I got his attention on the third time by being a little more insistent, as the situation required, in spite of the fact that it drew a bit of embarassing attention to both me and him from the surrounding crowd. I wonder if this is a side business for some of them? Providing firearms to ramp guys and getting a kickback?
Well, check the "conference area" and make sure it's not a "polling place" during elections. If you let me know what hotel you are at and where your conference is, I can give you a risk breakdown . As long as you don't site-see, or go most places at night, you should be OK. Another thing to watch out for as off limits: Any portion of the permitted area of an establishment that has been granted a Class A-General retail permit, as defined in Part II of Chapter 1 or Part II of Chapter 2 of Title 26 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. This wipes out casinos, and most of the French quarter. It may not be technically wrong to carry in the quarter, but cops on horses don't wait to discuss the finer points of law with anyone.
I think it is at the riverside marriot but then someone said the hotel had unforeseen repairs to be made and it was moving. the folks I am traveling with will probably go out drinking(hence the way my boss got robbed in chatanooga last time) so it may be pointless for me to take it anyways. I don't drink but am sure I will go with them. thanks for all the good info. You too MP
Malum's instructions on dealing with the airport are good. I posted here a while back a story regarding one bad experience I had at Hartsfield, which I'm sure can be found with the search. Otherwise, I have checked one many times and had no problems. The ammo, in it's packaging, can be in the same lockable box as the gun. Do not let the counter personnel, after you declare and sign the card, put the bag on the belt. Rather, you take it to the large item check in and stand there and watch while the TSA does their business. If you go to the one all the way on the east end of the terminal, there is hardly ever a wait. Really, it's hardly ever even a hassle. If anything, your bag gets personal attention right in front of you and then locked up, which is a good thing.
Yeah, if you're staying at a riverfront hotel, you would be hard pressed to even get to your room from the street without crossing something that could arguably fall under the guise of being off limits. Don't let them take "shortcuts" between streets in the French quarter. Don't go north past the block with Oz (gay bar that's fun) and Jean Lafitte's/Tropical Isle. Don't go south into the CBD after dark unless you know *exactly* where you are going. But yeah, if they're all going drinking and you're tagging along (assuming you will have no BAC), you can't carry in a bar IIRC.
Please tell me you're aware how many slobberingly hot chicks go to gay dance bars to avoid neandrethals like me... ******* Is N.O. safe for most people? Judge says if you aren't a black male between 18 and 35 who is involved in the drug trade, you're likely safe http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl0 ... bdb00.html ********* Because everyone else avoids New Orleans like the plague