FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport spent Friday morning demonstrating and describing how to properly travel with a firearm.
Jason Martin, TSA federal security director at FLL, told Local 10 News that there’s a right and wrong way of traveling with a gun.
“Obviously, people can bring their firearms with them when they travel,” Martin said. “We want to make sure that we are capable of facilitating that, but there is a specific way that you need to go about doing that.”
He says the biggest red flag is when a traveler brings a gun through a TSA security checkpoint with their carry-on luggage.
“If you do that, you’re in trouble,” he added.
According to TSA, more than 750 firearms have been found at security checkpoints in 19 airports across Florida this year. A statewide record of 854 guns were found in 2022.
At FLL, TSA officers found 134 guns last year. Hundreds of people in South Florida who attempt to travel with guns the wrong way not only create a dangerous situation and incur stiff penalties but also hold up security lines that are already expected to be long this holiday season.
So how exactly can you travel with a gun?
Mark Howell, a TSA regional spokesperson, shared the proper ways to travel with a firearm.
“The proper way to travel with a firearm is you need to have a hard side case with padding and it needs to be able to be locked,” he said. “Place an unloaded firearm inside the case with any ammunition stored separately.”
“Place your unloaded firearm and ammunition in the box, make sure it’s completely secure and you’re going to take it directly to the airline ticket counter,” he added. “That’s where you are required to declare that you have a firearm with you and you’re given a declaration form to fill out before the properly packed firearm is loaded into the plane and it’s returned to you at your destination.”
“We won’t have any issue with passengers taking firearms with them when they travel, as long as it’s packaged the right way and it’s declared to the airline,” said Howell.
For more information on TSA’s rules and regulations for packing, declaring and traveling with a firearm, click here.