Just a few days ago, my wife and I set off for a vacation in Salt Lake City, Utah. Having a Utah recognized permit, naturally one of my handguns was to tag along with us. We chose to fly out of our home state, VT in order to avoid any encounters with law enforcement in NY or Mass. I have heard horror stories about NYC airports and arrests. Our flights were as follows: Burlington to JFK, JFK to SLC. Checking in at Burlington was fine as usual.Fear number 1: About halfway through the first flight, we began to smell something off, and the flight attendants began hurriedly running up the aisles. The pilot came on to tell us that there was a significant amount of smoke filling the cockpit, and to prepare for an emergency landing. She was noticeably shaken. I felt selfish. Our young kids were back home and now risked losing both parents. I made my peace and braced for landing. We could see fire trucks lining the runway in the distance. She did an excellent job landing the plane and we stayed on board while the FD went over the plane with thermal cameras. We were safely at an airport about 2 hours drive from JFK. The airline set up a bus to take us all into the city. So now I find myself at ...Fear 2: I was now headed into NYC with my now illegal handgun and 15 round mag. In my mind, my kids now risked losing their father to the unconstitutional laws of a rogue state. We arrive and get our bags to find our suitcase(the one with the firearm) slashed open and covered in liquid. Fear 2.5:Now I'm worried that some airline worker had stolen my gun. Thankfully that was not the case. Now we are off to the hotel to try and rest, as well as evaluate the damage. We were forced to put all of our clothes and the gun in my snowboard bag. Both of us left clothes and the suitcase at the hotel. Now for check in. Every time I have checked my gun, the airline workers are very professional and generally uninterested in my having a gun. Not the case in JFK. We had to go through multiple workers that were so unfamiliar with the word firearm that I would have to repeat it louder to them, catching the attention of other travelers. Everyone displayed some level of alarm and disbelief. When we finally make it to the right desk, there is a supervisor waiting and I'm informed that the police are on their way, and that I should sit tight. Do I run? Could I make it out of the terminal if I ditched my bags? I'm running on 1 hour of sleep and still dealing with my own mortality. I'm worried. The officer comes over and asks to see the firearm. I indicate it's location in the luggage and get my keys out. Her first question is if I am law enforemet or military. I say no, and she asks for my permit. Here is the moment of truth. I inform her that I have no legal way to posses this gun in New York, and offer a brief synopsis of my last flight. She asks if we were staying in New York and I immediately say no. (Forgetting that we had just come from the hotel. Keep in mind that we go to the hotel at 12:30am and left for the airport at 4am.) Now I'm hoping that she doesn't question the timeline that I have given her which now has a 5 hour gap allowing for my possession of said firearm. She says "really it's fine as long as youve been in New York for less than like 24 hours or something like that. Since you're traveling it's ok. But just so you know, this could be an arrest for having an illegal firearm if you had been here longer" I'm struggling to not jump for joy. The quickest way for us to get to SLC is to first fly to LA, have a 5 hour layover and then fly to Utah. The rest of the trip there is uneventful. Now Im just hoping that the flights home go smoothly.I'm honestly surprised at how well everything went considering the circumstances. On the plus side, I now know that I can safely fly out of NYC. Sorry for no TL:DR via /r/CCW http://ift.tt/2GJKums
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