FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Can TSA officers carry guns on duty?
View Single Post
Old Oct 6, 2012, 3:00 pm
  #36  
catocony
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Dulles, VA
Programs: UA Life Gold, Marriott Life Titanium
Posts: 2,757
Originally Posted by StanSimmons
First, no one (except LEO's or Military on duty, and a very limited group of others such as specific pilots with government issued handguns) is allowed in the secured area of any commercial airport with a firearm.
When you say "Military on duty", what are you referring to? Are you talking about back after 9/11 when there were National Guardsmen at some airports? Even then, they were not locked and loaded, and I'm pretty sure that the National Guard is no longer permitted to work security at an airport checkpoint. I believe that was temporary legislation passed in a hurry after 9/11 that is gone. At least in practice, since I haven't seen a Guardsman at an airport since 2002. Active duty military and reservists were never allowed to work security at airports, due to the Posse Comitatus Act. National Guards, being state entities, could.

If you're referring to active-duty military traveling as passengers, they can't carry weapons into the "sterile area" or on a plane any more than I can.
catocony is offline