Pointless No Gun Signs - Can You Carry In Florida Airports?

[wolfhunter]

In Florida it is legal to bring an unloaded firearm in a case to the check-in counter to be checked. It is NOT legal to carry a firearm on your person anywhere at an airport except the parking lot.

[45fella]

The email has been sent to the "Florida Concealed Weapons Section" for interpretation, usually they take a few days to get back to me.

Here's the definition of "sterile area" or "secure area" of an airport.

Generally people are screened through airport security into the concourses, where the exit gates to the aircraft are located. This area is often called a secure or sterile area, and is referred to as airside. Passengers are discharged from airliners into the sterile area so that they usually will not have to be re-screened if disembarking from a domestic flight; however they are still subject to search at any time. Eating establishments have started using plastic glasses and utensils as opposed to glasses made out of glass and utensils made out of metal to reduce the usefulness of such items as weapons.

If you DO NOT go through security you are still in the "non-sterile" or "unsecure area". If they wanted the curb to be sterile also, they would put you through a metal detector as you stepped out of your car. Its also why there are signs "right before" you enter the line to go through security that says, "no firearms or weapons beyond this point".

[magicman007]

You have to remember, TSA people think they're something that they are not. They're just baggage checkers, they're not lawyers or law enforcement. They know very little.

Like I said, I have walked my gun case right up to the counter tons of times to check it as checked bags when I travel. I think if the terminal started at the curb someone over the past 10 years would have said something to me. The law states "sterile areas" and those that require a person to go through security. An airport is nothing more than a mall with restaurants and stores. When you go through security you are in the terminal.

Transporting firearms on the airlines is 100% legal. They don't require you to stand in traffic out front and wait for someone to come outside to get your gun case from you.

Personally what I do is: I call and get a name of a ticket agent so I have a contact person when I arrive at the counter. So I can at least say I informed them I'm coming.

I did say LOADED firearm. Transportation of a locked, UNLOADED firearm, in a locked, secure case is NOT illegal. I thought this discussion was about carrying on your person, a loaded firearm for self defense. Not just transporting while a passenger.

[magicman007]

This is directly taken from FS 790.06 (12): No license issued pursuant to this section shall authorize any person to carry a concealed weapon or firearm into... inside the passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport, provided that no person shall be prohibited from carrying any legal firearm into the terminal, which firearm is encased for shipment for purposes of checking such firearm as baggage to be lawfully transported on any aircraft. (snipped for brevity)

A passenger terminal is defined by Webster's Dictionary as: a terminal that serves air travelers or air freight.

The "Free Online Dictionary" defines "air terminal" this way: A facility on an airfield that functions as an air transportation hub and accommodates the loading and unloading of airlift aircraft and the intransit processing of traffic.

Encart online defines it this way: an airport building with facilities for passengers, where disembarking passengers are received and outward-bound passengers leave to board an aircraft.

I think, no matter which way you cut it, unless there is a separate and noncontiguous building where passengers actually are processed for their flights, the terminal starts at at LEAST the front door of the building. If the passenger embark/disembark area is under the same roof as the rest of the building, I don't think you can carry a LOADED firearm on your person (law enforcement exemptions aside).

[netentity]

If 45fella wants to look fashionable in the current edition OJ Simpson clothing line, let him. If you have the it can't happen to you mentality, it will happen to you. 45fella's actions if he does get arrested for illegal CCW in a Florida airport is also a bad reflection of all CCW holders. Something we do not need with Congress being the way it is now.

We've verified by Jon Gutmacher who is one of the premier Florida firearm attorneys. Florida statute 790.06 (12) is pretty self explanatory to me.

[45fella]

I did say LOADED firearm. Transportation of a locked, UNLOADED firearm, in a locked, secure case is NOT illegal. I thought this discussion was about carrying on your person, a loaded firearm for self defense. Not just transporting while a passenger.

Yes, we're talking about carrying a concealed and loaded weapon on your body. I've transported guns in cases 100 times over the years all over the country, so I know its perfectly within the law to carry a gun into the airport while its unloaded and in a case. The fully loaded magazine sits beside the gun in the case.

FDLE should have the correct answer to me in a couple days. And these are official legal interpretations of the law in question, so I keep them for possible future use.

[KimberPB]

This is directly taken from FS 790.06 (12): No license issued pursuant to this section shall authorize any person to carry a concealed weapon or firearm into... inside the passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport, provided that no person shall be prohibited from carrying any legal firearm into the terminal, which firearm is encased for shipment for purposes of checking such firearm as baggage to be lawfully transported on any aircraft. (snipped for brevity)

A passenger terminal is defined by Webster's Dictionary as: a terminal that serves air travelers or air freight.

The "Free Online Dictionary" defines "air terminal" this way: A facility on an airfield that functions as an air transportation hub and accommodates the loading and unloading of airlift aircraft and the intransit processing of traffic.

Encart online defines it this way: an airport building with facilities for passengers, where disembarking passengers are received and outward-bound passengers leave to board an aircraft.

I think, no matter which way you cut it, unless there is a separate and noncontiguous building where passengers actually are processed for their flights, the terminal starts at at LEAST the front door of the building. If the passenger embark/disembark area is under the same roof as the rest of the building, I don't think you can carry a LOADED firearm on your person (law enforcement exemptions aside).

Thanks, exactly what I'm talking about. The passenger terminals, or at least the section of the airport that the passenger load and unload the plane, are completely separate buildings at Tampa International. You have to go through a security check point then board a tram to take you to the air side terminals. So the main building is for checking in and baggage claim only. So when I read the law originally, to me, the passenger terminals were the individual buildings for the loading and unloading. But I could have been wrong. We'll see what 45fella turns up.

[45fella]

On a side note, since we're talking about airport security.

I'm in airports every week, usually on the corporate jet side and not as much in the actual airline terminals. But why do they allow cops to walk around in the gate areas with their weapons, makes no sense. The entire TSA plan is to keep weapons from getting onto a plane. If I, or anyone wanted to, they can easily knock-out one of these cops strolling around the gates, take their weapon and run right onto a jetway, onto a plane full of people and two pilots sitting up front waiting to leave the gate. Now you have a bunch of terrorists, with a firearm, on a plane full of hostages.

So much effort and money spent to keep a gun from getting through the metal detectors, and boom, there already through for anyone to grab.

Always wondered about that.

[netentity]

On a side note, since we're talking about airport security.

I'm in airports every week, usually on the corporate jet side and not as much in the actual airline terminals. But why do they allow cops to walk around in the gate areas with their weapons, makes no sense. The entire TSA plan is to keep weapons from getting onto a plane. If I, or anyone wanted to, they can easily knock-out one of these cops strolling around the gates, take their weapon and run right onto a jetway, onto a plane full of people and two pilots sitting up front waiting to leave the gate. Now you have a bunch of terrorists, with a firearm, on a plane full of hostages.

So much effort and money spent to keep a gun from getting through the metal detectors, and boom, there already through for anyone to grab.

Always wondered about that.

Because on-duty LEOs that have jurisdiction or are permitted to travel armed are exempt from the CFRs pertaining to the secure area of a commercial airport.

[45fella]

Because on-duty LEOs that have jurisdiction or are permitted to travel armed are exempt from the CFRs pertaining to the secure area of a commercial airport.

You failed to see my point. A uniformed cop carrying a gun BEYOND the security check-points is a target for a would-be terrorist, for easily getting a gun onto a fully loaded plane.

My point is: Why do they allow it...because it is very stupid to allow that.