flying with a firearm?

[quilbilly]

Does anyone out there have experience flying Allegiant Airlines and firearms? I have been gifted a post 64 Mod 70 as part of an estate and would like to fly with it back if there isn't time to make the drive to Las Vegas in a month or two. I could also fly Alaska out of the same airport but it would be a lot more expensive plus require a stop enroute.

[Idz]

You can mail rifles to yourself.
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/may-...postal-service

The airlines x-ray everything so the thieves in baggage handling know what you're sending. They may 'lose' it or destroy it depending on their mood. I've had better luck with the mail than airlines delivering breakable things.

[Winger Ed.]

Call the airline and ask them specifically, and get the name of who you talked to.

Federal regulations are what they are,
but the individual airlines sometimes have their own interpretations of them.

You might not find this out until they refuse to let you board, or refuse carrying a firearm
on their airplane if its not in the right kind of case.

And take out vital parts that can be carried or mailed separately like the bolt and trigger guts.
That will make it less appealing to thieves.

[Petrol & Powder]

Airlines RARELY "lose" firearms in checked baggage. The extra scrutiny actually makes the item less likely to be stolen.

Call the airline, make sure they don't have some funky policy and follow the federal rules for checking firearms.

Otherwise, shipping it to yourself is another option. I would use FedEx, insure it for full value and drop it off personally at a FedEx distribution center.

[dangitgriff]

Winger Ed is right on...I was rejected by American Airlines a couple months ago for not having my firearm in the hard factory case or a hard plastic case with 2 locks on it...even though the case I had was locked and packed inside another checked hard-sided bag that also had a lock on it.
The locks on your firearm case don’t have to be TSA locks—use your own.
Here is what I will be buying for my pistol for air travel:

[Duckiller]

ATF says you can mail to yourself. Fed Ex and UPS won't send it to yourself. Put it in a hard gun case and lock it up with several padlocks and tell the airline. I would check with the airline to see if they have any special requirements. Last gun I flew with the airline didn't look at it. They asked if it was loaded and gave me a certificate to put in the case and told me to lock it up. When it got to LAX it was set offto the side with no one watching it. I picked it up and walked out.

[dangitgriff]

You can mail long guns ONLY via USPS: person-to-FFL in another state or from yourself to yourself in another state. No person(seller)-to-person(buyer) shipments allowed.
Absolutely no pistols may be mailed through the USPS.
Long guns should be disassembled to whatever extent practicable & shipped in the smallest form-factor box practicable with NO markings on the outside indicating its contents.

[Handloader109]

Got to be in a hard case.....Locked.... Probably cheaper to mail USPS....

[Petrol & Powder]

FedEx and UPS will allow you to ship a gun to yourself, you just have to educate the clerk at the counter or, more likely, their boss.

Don't go to one the off-site shipping centers run by another company, go to an actual FedEx or UPS distribution hub. The manager will know the law or know who he/she needs to call to learn the law.

Technically USPS will ship long guns that comply with postal regulations but good luck ever finding a USPS employee (including some postmasters) that actually know the law.

If you're flying anyway, you might as well put it in an approved hard case, put the required locks on it and check it in.

[Markopolo]

i would tell you that Alaska Airlines has Mega experience with firearms.. tons of alaskans travel with firearms, and everybody comming to alaska to hunt has a gun shipped.. much easier to fly with it..

[NyFirefighter357]

Remove the stock, mail the "tool" to yourself and bring the stock back in your luggage.

[rking22]

Cheap wallyworld plastic hard case and 2 padlocks. Check the airline for their requirements, just in case. I don’t think I have been on an airplane in the last 11 years without checking a shotgun! Went thru Denver the day of the Dem convention, no big deal. Just understand the rules and follow them.

[quilbilly]

Thanks to you all. Great information!

[NyFirefighter357]

https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c4_009.htm

USPS 432 Mailability / 432.3 Rifles and Shotguns / C: A rifle or shotgun owned by a non-FFL may be mailed outside the owner‘s state of residence by the owner to himself or herself, in care of another person in the other state where he or she intends to hunt or engage in any other lawful activity. These mail pieces must: (1) Be addressed to the owner. (2) Include the “in the care of” endorsement immediately preceding the name of the applicable temporary custodian. (3) Be opened by the rifle or shotgun owner only. (4) Be mailed using a class of mail, product, or Extra Service that provides tracking and signature capture at delivery.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/transport...and-ammunition

https://youtu.be/q_1SFqhOMXE

[Wayne Smith]

It has been easy to fly with a gun, simply call TSA at the airport well ahead of time, find out the current rules, and follow them. They are set up to do exactly this. It is not the airline, it is the TSA that handles this.

[EDG]

I think you are required to have a 4473 for any firearm acquired in/from a state not adjoining your state of residence. So you must have it shipped to a dealer who can run the NICS on you in your home state.

People fly with and mail rifles to themselves all the time.
At Accurate Reloading there are a lot of international (Africa) hunters that regularly travel with firearms and they know how to get through the systems around the globe.

[DocSavage]

If your going to fly with a firearm don't buy a cheap Walmart plastic case get something substantial say a Pelican case baggage handlers tend to be less than gentile with baggage . Have seen to many videos of baggage being treated with no regards to content.

[Petrol & Powder]

I think you are required to have a 4473 for any firearm acquired in/from a state not adjoining your state of residence. So you must have it shipped to a dealer who can run the NICS on you in your home state.

People fly with and mail rifles to themselves all the time.
At Accurate Reloading there are a lot of international (Africa) hunters that regularly travel with firearms and they know how to get through the systems around the globe.

I don't think that's accurate for long guns being shipped by the owner to the same owner, in the U.S.A.

The gun is not changing ownership or constructive possession, while in transit.
The carrier (airline, FedEx, UPS, etc.) has custody of the package but not constructive possession of the gun; the gun remains in the constructive possession of the person shipping the gun on one end and retrieving the gun on the other end of the trip. So a 4473 is not needed because the gun was never transferred [by ATF standards].

It's no different than putting a box containing a gun into a moving van in one state and having that gun shipped to your new home 4 states away. (not that I would recommend that practice). As long as you can lawfully posses the gun at both ends of that journey, you don' need to do anything other than retrieve your gun from the carrier at the other end of that journey. You didn't transfer possession of the firearm (by ATF standards) to the moving company (and all of its convicted felon employees) during the transport.

When you check a firearm in your luggage at an airport and some convicted felon baggage handler picks that gun case up and loads it on the plane, by law he's not "in possession" of a firearm during that activity. As long as the package is unopened and remains in the custody of the carrier (Airline, FedEx, UPS) AND remains un-opened by the person it is delivered to "in care of" - the person shipping the gun has not transferred it to someone else during the journey.

International transport of firearms is a WHOLE different story. Now we're getting into importation and the laws of other sovereign nations.

[Petrol & Powder]

And to be clear, I read the OP and as I understand it, he is a resident of Washington State and has become the owner of a long gun located in Nevada. Those are not adjoining states and if he was obtaining the gun from a FFL in Nevada, that might require shipping the gun to an FFL in Washington state. However, if he can lawfully take possession of a long gun from private person (such as a family member) in Nevada, the gun becomes his and he can proceed as if he shipping the gun to himself.

Perhaps a member with knowledge of Nevada law can answer the question: Can a non FFL resident of Nevada gift a long gun to a non-resident ? (assuming everyone can lawfully possess that gun).

If the OP cannot take possession of that gun from a non-FFL in Nevada then his situation changes and the gun must be shipped to a FFL in Washington State. He would then go to that FFL and complete a 4473 before taking possession of that gun in his home state.

[Petrol & Powder]

And here's what I've found so far:
Nevada Senate Bill 143 was passed by the Nevada legislature and signed by the Governor. It goes into effect on Jan 1, 2020 BUT even after it goes into effect, it has an exceptions for transferring a firearm between most family members and to administrators of wills.
So currently I believe a non-FFL family member can transfer a long gun to another family member.

After the law goes into effect the administrator of a will or trust will have to present the firearm to a FFL to transfer the gun (after 1/1/20 the administrator of a will can take possession of the gun without going to a FFL but he can't transfer it to another person without a background check).

Nevada SB143 exceptions- in part:

3.The sale or transfer of a firearm between immediate family
members, which for the purposes of this section means spouses
and domestic partners and any of the following relations, whether
by whole or half blood, adoption, or step-relation: parents,
children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles,
nieces and nephews.
4.
The transfer of a firearm to an executor, administrator,
trustee or personal representative of an estate or a trust that
occurs by operation of law upon the death of the former owner of
the firearm.


So........if the OP is a family member of the prior owner and takes possession of that gun before 1/1/20, he becomes the new owner of the gun and can ship it to himself.
If he waits until after 1/1/20, the administrator of the estate will have to take the gun to a Nevada FFL. That Nevada FFL cannot transfer that gun to an out of state resident of a non contiguous state, SO........it will then need to go to a FFL in Washington State for the final transfer to the OP in Washington.

IF I HAVE CORRECTLY UNDERSTOOD existing law.


I'm going to say that the SAFE thing to do would be have the administrator of the estate take the gun to a Nevada FFL, have that FFL ship the gun to a Washington State FFL and have the OP take possession of that gun in Washington State from that FFL.