My guess is that TSA agents at airports tend to be recruited/hired from the local population, and as such, they tend to possess whatever the predominant local attitude happens to be toward guns.... ...although I confess that I know nothing about Clearwater Florida. So not only is there the tendency of any large organization to not interpret regulations consistently from one location to another, you've also got some people in some places who are on a personal mission to make it as hard as possible for you to travel with a gun, and others who couldn't care less in other places.kyreb wrote:Lessons learned.....(1) TSA interprets their regs far differently at different airports. (2) Next time I travel with a gun I will drive.
My wife and I have decided that we'll just not going to fly anywhere unless we absolutely cannot get to where we want to be by road. There just isn't anyplace that we have to get to that taking 2 or 3 days to get there isn't acceptable, and there isn't any place in the U.S. outside of Alaska and Hawaii that is more than a 2 or 3 day drive away. Flying just isn't worth the hassles anymore. I don't feel compelled to go to Hawaii, and I can get to Alaska by car. I don't have any particular animus against TSA employees individually. I am sure that they, for the most part, are just trying to do their jobs to the level and quality of their training. But as an organization, it is utterly moronic, and it is one of the most flagrant examples of "mission creep" there is in the federal government (which is, itself, a perfect example of mission creep).