FlyerTalk Forums - Questionable security practice at PHL

So we have this 19 year old bozo who tried to smuggle a BB gun aboard an Airtran flight. (smuggle = stashed inside a pillow in his backpack) Regardless of his intentions, TSA was right to call the police and now he’s facing federal charges.

Over the holidays, we flew PHL-SNA-LAS-PHL mainly on Delta in F and all legs were one way. None of us got SSSSed which was nice http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif Also, my new airport friendly Skechers went through all the checkpoints (even in ATL) with nary a beep. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

Anyway, I took 2 firearms with me on the trip as I have done many times before. However, when checking in at PHL they had a very odd (and dangerous IMHO) procedure. I went to the front ticket counter and declared the firearms as usual. The DL agent got out the red cards and filled them out then had me wait whilst she called for a TSA screener. The TSA guy shows up and wants me to verify the firearms are unloaded--usually the airline ticket agent does this but it’s not that big a deal to me. I verbally verify they’re unloaded but he wants me to show him they are unloaded. Well, okay, but that means I have to unlock the outer case (3 locks) to get to the smaller gun cases inside then unlock those cases (2 locks each) to get to the firearms. After I did all that and showed him he tells me to leave the cases unlocked because he has to run them all through the scanner because all that metal (the heavy duty locks) might alarm!!!!!! ...??!?!?!

Now there’s nothing else in this bag/case, just two unloaded firearms, their cases and some ammunition in separate boxes…yet I’m supposed to turn all of this stuff over to a TSA weenie who I don’t know, nor do I even know if he’s weapons certified so that he can take them to the airside of the airport to run them through a scanner?!?!? And no, he wasn’t allowing me to go with him, nor did he want me to lock up the firearms!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/eek.gif grrrrrr He asked me to show him the order in which the locks were to be placed and said he would take care of all that for me. He gave a pleading look to the Delta ticket agent but she just shrugged. I really thought about calling for the airport police but figured Mr. TSA would be out on his butt or worse if he screwed up (I got his name and ID# while we were talking). Got into SNA and everything was in order.

Now compare this to departing SNA or LAS where in each case, the ticket agent just had me sign the form/card, put it inside the bag which I then closed and locked and then sent me on my way. In fact, in LAS we had to cart our luggage over to the TSA area (where they have a sign welcoming the use of those Travel Sentry™ locks). The TSA baggage screener asked if my bags were unlocked and I told him no while pointing to the red “F” the ticket agent wrote on the barcode tag. He then said “Okay, no problem! You all have a nice flight!”