GUNS ON A PLANE

   Last year, a few days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, I posted on fb, an old picture of me in a LA hotel room, in a plushy white bathrobe and shades, holding my 9mm. This was the image I had used, not only as a fb profile pic, but as representative of a piece I had done- legally carrying my pistol from NY to Cali. Before Sandy Hook nobody said boo. In the hysterical wake surrounding the massacre in Newtown, Ct., people couldn't wait to tell me how much of an asshole I was. After the killing of a TSA agent at LAX last week, let me tell you this story again.

   Pull up a cracker barrel boys and girls. Warm your hands on that defective mac keyboard, and listen to this tale. Maybe you'll learn something.
    Way back in 1998 I had a job out in New Mexico. Realizing that turkey season would start while I was out west, I decided to see if I could fly with my shotgun. I made some calls, and found out it was surprisingly easy to take your gun on a  plane. I packed my 12 ga. and my .357 mag. handgun in a case and walked to the check in counter at Newark airport. Imagine the looks on the people in line, when this long haired, bearded man, pulled out his firearms to show the agent they were unloaded. "Are you military?" the agent asked. "No." "Law enforcement?" "No." She then smiled, as I packed up my guns, and told me to have a good trip. Easy peasey.

   Ten years later, in our brave new, post-911 world, I wanted to see if I could just as easily, carry my gun to LA. To my surprise, it was the same simple process. I checked my piece at the counter at Stewart Field and picked it up on the carousel at LAX. The story would end here, if it were not for the return trip.
    This was my first time flying out of LAX, so I was a bit confused which line I was supposed to be in. As I approached a tiny, black woman in a TSA uniform, I realized she had her hands full arguing with a elderly white couple, unhappy about something. I interrupted the stand off- "Excuse me 'mam. I'm carrying a firearm. Can you.....?" Before I could finish my sentence, asking her where I should go, she waved me forward, like I was head of security. "Right this way, sir." She said with a smile, glaring at the old couple, as if to infer if they didn't cooperate I was gonna arrest them. And here's where it gets even crazier. Once that TSA agent waved me through, it was like I was Brad Pitt at the Oscars. The seas parted. All I had to say was "firearm" and I kept going to the front of the line. Damn, they sure were friendly to gun owners in LA.

If it wasn't for a uniformed airport cop, finally questioning me as to who I was, I would've been sitting in the co-pilot's seat, gun on my lap. That one little mistake, by the distracted, albeit well meaning TSA agent on the sidewalk, allowed me full access to the airport, all the time declaring "I have a gun." When it was all straightened out, I went back outside and got in the proper line. My point in posting that pic on fb, was to draw attention to just how easy it is to bring a gun in the airport- any airport. It's a sad fact that gun laws will not protect anyone from some maniac intent on killing with a gun. At 9:15 am LA time this morning there will be a moment of silence for the murdered TSA agent. Sorry to say, he is most likely only the first.