Your gun case needs three locks

By Russell Mark

28 March 2012. This is the latest news for travellers with guns direct from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) in the States. If you are travelling with a three hinge gun case such as the millions of plastic cases made by Negrini cases in Italy for Beretta, Perazzi etc etc it will now be deemed illegal to put on a plane unless all three hinges can be locked. It does not matter if the gun case is even inside another lockable bag. I found out the hard way in Dallas yesterday. My case can only be locked in the middle. Like many others it has two hinges on either end that clasp the case together, but cannot be locked.

The FAA are now enforcing this regulation, which they say is not new, but has always been interpreted liberally. If the case at either end can be opened in any way it is not considered to be locked and will not be put on any flight within the USA. My case was actually inside a locked steel mesh Beretta gun bag, but this is not considered to be safe also.

It is better to be warned than to be sorry and you can't argue with the FAA. It all means that life is getting harder and harder to travel with firearms. It will not be long before this will become standard procedure on every airline in the world. I guess it could be worse as there are becoming an increasing amount of airlines that now simply refuse to handle firearms at all.

Remember this advice when purchasing your next gun case. It needs three locks. One in the centre and one on each end.

The author is an Olympic Gold medallist in Double Trap and a member of the Australian Olympic Shooting Team. indianshooting.com