But this is the reason I brought no firearms with me to the GBR last year.
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that several baggage handlers working for a company contracted by Delta Airlines were busted in a sting operation that was launched following the theft of a handgun from a retired police sergeant’s luggage.
The brilliant individuals who masterminded this theft were caught when three bags loaded with goodies were checked on two different flights and items stolen from the bags were found in an employee’s work locker. The decoy items included a game system, an Apple laptop, a gold watch and foreign currency.
The custom-made handgun was later recovered from one of the workers’ home.
SeaTac Airport is one of the worst in the nation. FBI agents get their department issued automatic weapons stolen from SeaTac.
So I will make PacNW local Gun Blogger Rendezvous IV attendees this offer:
I will be driving down to Reno this year. I am bringing a selection of firearms with me. For a nominal fee (aka: Less than the airlines will charge you) I will transport your firearms and their ammunition to Reno and back (I wouldn’t charge at all except that I need to make up some of the cost of fuel).
I’m taking a 3/4ton truck and will have plenty of spare room in the cab and under the locked canopy. Your guns will be next to my guns. The security I provide to mine I will provide to yours.
Have a think on it. Let me know if you’re interested.
I’m also still looking for a passenger. I’ve guestimated fuel costs to total approximately $360 for the round trip. Divide that in half and it’s about the same as I paid for airfare last year.
Have a think on that as well.
Since your route’s going thru Cali, don’t forget that anything actually listed on the CA Assault Weapons Ban list cannot be imported, whether or not a bullet button is attached. I have a DoubleStar “Off-List” AR lower receiver that’s available to borrow, so someone could certainly disassemble his upper, trigger group, stock, etc., and assemble them on my legal lower.
Interactive version of the Calguns Flowchart is here. Click thru to see if your gun qualifies! http://www.calnra.com/cgi-bin/flowchart.cgi
Oh, and one wants to be careful about this because for the moment, now that Nordyke (the case that incorporated the 2nd Amendment against the states) is up for en banc review in September, it technically doesn’t exist as a ruling, so we effectively have no 2nd Amendment in California.
Yes, although technically speaking, the “peaceable journey” provision of the 1986 Firearms Owner Protection Act applies.
Traveling through California with weapons that are not legal in California but are legal at the starting point, and end point of your journey, is protected under both federal and state law.
Cook county in Illinois, and Kings, Queens, and Manhattan county in New York have been known to violate that law; but they never actually bring anything to trial, they just hassle the gun owners, cause them to miss their flights etc…
California however does honor the peaceable journey laws.
Oh and baggage handlers like that are the primary reason why I drove to Reno last year, and gave my guns to Kevin Baker to haul up the two previous years.
Oh and this year, I’m also taking a 3/4 ton crew cab diesel truck to Reno, and I will gladly transport anything I can fit in said truck from Arizona; providing said transport is not likely to see me imprisoned.
You’re right about the “peacable journey” stuff, but there was considerable discussion of this on the Calguns board last year when Phil flew in to Cali en route to Reno, and the consensus was “why risk the $10-$20k lawyer’s fee to get your guns back when they’re confiscated by an LEO who doesn’t know the fine points of the law?”
I had my Taurus 9mm stolen from SeaTac in ’05. Suspected baggage handlers. Got it back in ’07. The Seattle PD found it in a Samoan guy’s car. Samoan guy’s mother and brother were both baggage handlers at SeaTac.