Key Takeaways
- Flying with firearms can lead to confusion at check-in counters due to inconsistent airline policies.
- Pew Policies Travel Tags provide quick access to important travel information via a QR code on each tag.
- These tags summarize policies, include links to reciprocity maps, and are easy to carry with luggage.
- The tags do not guarantee compliance but help shift the conversation from your word to documented rules.
- To win a set, simply comment ‘Give me one’ on the associated video post, or purchase them online.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
If you fly with firearms, you already know the problem. You do everything right, you get to the counter, and the agent tells you something that is not actually the policy.
A set of Pew Policies Travel Tags showed up in my mailbox the other day, and after looking them over I asked about doing a giveaway. So I’m giving away four sets.
The concept is simple. Each tag has a QR code on the back. Scan it and you land on a single page with everything you need for interstate travel with a firearm.
First link on the page my USA Carry Reciprocity Maps. Then an NFA travel form. Then the individual policies for the airlines, plus TSA’s rules, all one tap away.
That matters at the ticket counter. If you’re declaring a firearm and the agent doesn’t know their own airline’s policy, you can pull it up in seconds instead of arguing from memory.
The tags come from Pew Culture, and the company maintains the policy page as airline rules change. They’re sold through a handful of retailers as a two pack for $35.99, and mine came with attachment hardware for a hard-sided case or luggage, plus a few stickers.
I want to be honest about the limits of a tag, because I’ve lived this.
Anyone who has watched my Flying with Guns series has seen the check-in counter conversations where I had the actual policy pulled up and the person across the counter did not want to look at it. In the video above I pulled up TSA’s own website and offered to let an agent read it. The response was that they believed me, but that it had to be a “TSA-Approved” lock anyway. She also didn’t know the difference between a TSA-Approved lock and a TSA-Recognized lock.
It doesn’t. TSA’s national firearms guidance is explicit that locked cases that can easily be opened do not qualify for checked baggage, and that passengers may use any brand or type of lock, including TSA-recognized locks.
That is the whole point. Having the policy in your hand doesn’t force compliance from the other side, but it changes the conversation from your word against theirs into a document on a screen. Sometimes that is enough. Sometimes a supervisor gets called. Either way you’re better off with it than without it.
More from USA Carry:
The tag is a reference tool, not a permission slip. TSA’s requirements don’t move: the firearm has to be completely unloaded and packed in a locked hard-sided case before you get to the airport, only you retain the key or combination, and you take it to the airline ticket counter and declare it rather than bringing it anywhere near a screening checkpoint.
Bringing a firearm to a checkpoint carries a civil penalty of up to roughly $15,000, costs you PreCheck eligibility for at least five years, and can be referred for federal prosecution. Airlines are also free to impose requirements beyond TSA’s, which is exactly why a quick reference to the specific carrier’s policy is useful.
I worked out four sets to give away.
Leave a comment saying “Give me one” on the video anywhere I posted it. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, wherever you saw it.
In about a week I’ll draw four random winners and ship a set to each as soon as the tags reach me.
If you don’t want to wait on a drawing, you can pick up a two pack here: Pew Policies Travel Tag 2-Pack at RoughKraft Industries
