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I went to love field thursday to pick up my wife and saw a sign on the doors saying guns were illegal including concealed carry holders and cited 30.05 which is about trespass,I didn't want to get in trouble so I went back out to the car and left my gun in the car but I don't like walking through those garages unarmed.Could I have legally carried there.I realize it wasn't the 30.06 but wasn't sure,Legal ot not? thanks. sj

I asked this question a while ago. The great minds basically said you're fine. Love Field is government owned, so even if they DID post a 30.06 sign, it wouldn't be valid. Also, there is no law against carrying in the unsecured area of an airport in Texas.

I carry into Love all the time when I travel.

I check in, declare my firearm, go to a Men's room and get a stall, disarm and sign the form, lock the weapon up in my bags with the form, then give my bags to TSA.

If I am going to somewhere gun-unfriendly, like Chicago, then I leave the weapon in its case until I get back to Texas, then reverse the procedure.

If I am picking someone up or dropping off, then I just wear it.

Same for DFW.

I to fly often, and often bring a gun with me. And some of the statements I quote from you below are very confusing to me.

austin wrote: I carry into Love all the time when I travel.

I check in, declare my firearm, go to a Men's room and get a stall, disarm and sign the form, lock the weapon up in my bags with the form, then give my bags to TSA.

So are you saying that you:

1) Present yourself at the checkin counter with all of your baggage, including the stuff you are carrying on (if any) and the stuff you are checking.

2) Declare your firearm.

3) Get your boarding passes.

4) Leave the checkin counter, TAKING ALL OF YOUR BAGGAGE WITH YOU, go to a Men's Room, get a stall, disarm in the stall, lock the gun in one case with the declaration form, put the ammo in a factory type container and lock it in a different case, and THEN go to TSA to have your checked bags screened?

If so, that sounds mighty weird to me. At many airports, the people at the checkin counter take the bags you are checking when you check in and send them on to TSA themselves. When you declare a gun, they tell you to go to the TSA checkpoint and wait.

I am amazed that you are not drawing all kinds of attention to yourself when you delcare the gun and then gather up all of your stuff and head for a Men's Room.

austin wrote: If I am going to somewhere gun-unfriendly, like Chicago, then I leave the weapon in its case until I get back to Texas, then reverse the procedure.

1) In that instance, why would you bother even taking it with you? If you're staying in Chicago, you can't legally possess the gun, even in your hotel room, unless you fall into a couple of very narrow catagories like FBI agent, US Marshall, etc.

If your destination is somewhere outside of Chicago, you can probably legally possess it in your hotel room and/or transport it so long as it's unloaded and properly encased while being transported (i.e. rendered completely useless for defense).

2) You still have to check in in Chicago for the flight back. That means that you have to declare the gun there. So do you have some kind of federal CCW credentials like an FBI agent or US Marshall would have?

Otherwise, I'd like to know how you keep them from tossing your fanny in jail when you delcare the gun in Chicago, which bans all handguns except those registered sometime back in the 1970's unless you are a Chicago cop or Alderman (or a Fed).

Do you claim "innocent passage" under the FOPA of 1986? If so, I am amazed that they honor it. In many places, the airport authorities will arrest you anyway, and leave it to you to show in court that you fall under the FOPA. The NRA is currently suing the Newark (NJ) Airport Authority for violating the rights of a man from Utah who was travelling to PA when an in-flight delay caused him to miss his connection. The airline put him up in a hotel for the night and gave him a ticket for a flight the next day. Of course, this caused him to have to check in all over again and, guess what? Some of his checked guns were not legal in NJ, so they threw him in the county lockup.

So I want to know how you manage to avoid this.

When I fly, I arrive at the airport with my "travelling" carry piece already unloaded and cased. Sometimes, I will do this in my vehicle while still in the parking lot. Then I check in, declare, get my boarding passes, and go through whatever TSA procedures are required.

For the trip from the car to the checkin counter, I guess I just take my chances that I won't be attacked, robbed, and/or killed. Foolish of me I guess. I'm kinda leaving myself wide open for a few minutes there.

When travelling to an oppressive place like Chicago, I take a novel approach that I like to call, "LEAVING THE GUN AT HOME." So far, this method has proven to be foolproof in keeping my fanny, and the rest of me for that matter, out of prison when entering and leaving such places. And yes, I know that I could be victimized by violent criminals when in one of these oppressive jurisdictions. But it's simply a risk I choose to accept should I need to visit one.

Of course, I do everything I can to AVOID NEEDING to visit those places.

austin wrote: If I am picking someone up or dropping off, then I just wear it.

On this we fully agree.

My CHL instructor taught us that carrying into the secured area of an airport is not allowed. The kicker was that the "secured area" could be dynamic. If security is heightened for some reason, the secured area could be 2 miles from the terminal...not just beyond the metal detectors (which is commonly known as the sterile area).

IcheeWaWa wrote:My CHL instructor taught us that carrying into the secured area of an airport is not allowed. The kicker was that the "secured area" could be dynamic. If security is heightened for some reason, the secured area could be 2 miles from the terminal...not just beyond the metal detectors (which is commonly known as the sterile area).

First off, my questions to "austin" have nothing to do with carrying in a secure area.

Secondly, I'm beginning to think that a lot of TX CHL instructors need to put in some time on the staff of the "Mythbusters" TV show. (Have you heard it's a state jail felony to carry concealed within 4 hours of having stepped on a toad?)

Either that or the Brady Bunch has made a special effort to infiltrate the ranks of TX CHL instructors in an effort to discourage people from getting CHL's and carrying.

Thirdly, I don't think you'll ever see a "secured area" 2 miles from the terminal. Where would they get the people necessary to establish the perimeter? A place doesn't become a "secured area" just by someone wishing it to be so.

Otherwise, President Barack Hussein Obama could just declare that every airport in the country would henceforth have a secured area 500 miles in diameter, thus effectively banning EVERYONE from carrying guns.

Believe me, if some airport ever did establish an extended security perimeter due to the emergence of some kind of threat, you would know about it.

Sometimes we go too far with these worst case scenarios. I wouldn't worry much about getting bagged by inadvertantly stepping into some kind of freaky-huge "double secret" secure area that no one knows about until they arrest you for carrying.

But I do have serious questions about how "austin" handles flying with guns, as I pointed out in my message above.

In fact, I just thought of another. Many airports (though possibly not LOVE) are posted 30.06. This means that if austin disarms and encases his carry gun in the airport rest room, he is violating the trespass statute just by carrying inside the building.

IcheeWaWa wrote:My CHL instructor taught us that carrying into the secured area of an airport is not allowed. The kicker was that the "secured area" could be dynamic. If security is heightened for some reason, the secured area could be 2 miles from the terminal...not just beyond the metal detectors (which is commonly known as the sterile area).

I worked for TSA at Love field for three years and I can assure you your instructor was wrong.

The secure area is clearly defined and inflexible.

The signs at Love Field are essentially meaningless, but discussions with Love Field LEOs indicated that some would choose not to attempt to enforce the "bogus" signs while others would.