-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In list.cypherpunks, aaron@herringn.com writes:
Flew down to LA recently with a firearm (checked, of course).
Looking over the ticket later, I was mildly surprised to find "GUN" in a string of otherwise unintelligible text.
Probably a coincidence. The last time I flew with a checked gun was 1980. Back then, they just asked you to declare it. In fact, I forgot to declare it in Seattle, and in a fit of concience told a ticket agent. Whereupon I was given a most nifty tour of the bowels of Sea-Tac to show an agent that the piece wasn't loaded and that there was no ammo in the same bag. Ah, the good old days...
The carrier was Alaska Airlines, if it matters.
I've flown tens of thousands of miles on Alaska Airlines... they were always very mellow about things other airlines seemed tense about.
As far as the photo-id went, they didn't copy any data off it or try to authenticate, just made sure it was my picture.
One more quick anecdote: Back in January, I happened to be "between picture id's" and needed to fly. I showed a 2 year expired Alaska driver license. The clerk had a tough time finding the DL number (I had to show him where it was), but didn't even notice the expiration date. He did copy the DL number into his terminal, though. - -- Roy M. Silvernail [ ] roy@scytale.com DNRC Minister Plenipotentiary of All Things Confusing, Software Division PGP Public Key fingerprint = 31 86 EC B9 DB 76 A7 54 13 0B 6A 6B CC 09 18 B6 Key available from pubkey@scytale.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMruBQBvikii9febJAQGl+gP+LhOd+D6o+e8wwyLVncNuk7FMkbOjCxjF OS4ifNLCOwPrMnZySfGOinMdf+bmEzC1vdBjHmw0oqEr4A3P2uMZtayrj07Y2MBG phzc+HuNgXrs7I4qXP5WFq50ZJVQpS/4sPwlbND/oF5HwxWql/JwnOIuyTIwR/Rd HL4SBUoPWqU= =RnxJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----