Originally Posted by
mtofell
Fwiw, I regularly check my pistol when traveling between my two homes and it's usually pretty painless but every once in a while I get a nutty agent or even TSA guy that wants to examine and take the whole thing apart. No surprise, the biggest hassle I ever got was at SFO when I made the mistake of connecting overnight through Calf. and had to retrieve/recheck my bag.
Wow, I didn't realize they would take them out. I know eons ago when I did ticket counter agent training, they specifically told us NOT to open any firearms cases. We were only to ask if it was unloaded, and make sure it was locked. The urban legend was that an ATO agent somewhere in Texas (it's always Texas...) was verifying someone's firearm was unloaded and managed to discharge it in the process. Chaos ensued.
I wouldn't think you'd want agents (airline or TSA) handling firearms. It's impossible to be familiar with every firearm. I would think the potential liability of handling someone else's firearm far outweighs any potential benefit.
But what do I know, I retired from the airline biz more than a decade ago.