Here we have a guy who asks about gun regulations on a travel site and he say's we're overreacting. SHEESH!

Normally I might assume this person should have a right to carry a gun. I believe in the right to have registered guns. But anyone getting ready to go on a trip who isn't smart enough to figure out that he should call the airline he's fliying on and get the true scoop, really is too stupid to be carrying a gun around. Who in their right mind would think it is smarter to go on a public but anonymous website to get the answer instead of calling the airline that has the facts and the full control of the situation?

To xxxxx above:

Obtaining a permit to carry a handgun does in no way insure the intelligence of a person. Hence the whole flaw in our supposed "hand gun control." Most are idiots, or crazy. Otherwise why do they feel the need to "protect" themselves?

Amomtoo wrote, "I've never read in the paper about someone actually defending themselves with a gun successfully."

You must be too busy with your children to read the papers. There are thousands of stories of citizens who used their guns to protect their families from criminals and rapists. In fact, the Wall Street Journal recently published a story about a man who saved his son's life during an armed robbery at Blockbuster Video in Florida.

I'm a woman, and I carry a gun. I have a permit, have taken several safety classes sponsored by the local police, and regularly train on a shooting range. Several of my friends are rape victims, and I intend to protect myself and my family if necessary. If amomtoo wants to be a defenseless victim, that's her choice. In the time it takes 911 to respond to her phone call, a criminal could rape and rob her. It's happened before. Read Paxton Quigley's Armed and Female if you don't believe me.

As for xxx's question, xxx should check with the airline about carrying his gun. It is perfectly legal as long as the gun is unloaded, registered with the airline, and in checked --not carry-on-- baggage. Some airlines ask that gunowners purchase a separate locked box to fit inside their locked suitcase. Then, the airline can put the orange tag on the locked box rather than the suitcase. This reduces the chances of the suitcase being stolen by thieves who see the orange tag. If xxx has a trigger lock, bring that as well. XXX also should call his local police station and ask them if the state he is visiting accepts his carry permit. Do NOT bring your gun if the state does not permit it.

Somehow I think I'll get through life without feeling like a defenseless victim. I'm sorry you live your life in fear. I've met Paxton Quigley, actually worked with her in Los Angeles, and besides being a very ambitious woman capitalizing on her ability to feed upon other women's fears, she is also a bit paranoid.

"Do NOT bring your gun if the state does not permit it."

Better is - Do NOT bring your gun if the city or state does not permit it.

I have no idea where you are going but you might want to do a google search on the various laws from city to city/county to county/state to state/

http://www.google.com/search?q=Federal+Handgun+permit&hl=en&start=20&sa=N

It's you're constitutional right to have and or bear arms....don't pay any attention to all these pansies !!

This is from the FAA website "Firearms and ammunition may not be carried by a passenger on an aircraft. However, unloaded
firearms may be transported in checked baggage if declared to the agent at check in and packed
in a suitable container. Handguns must be in a locked container. Boxed small arms ammunition for
personal use may be transported in checked luggage. Amounts may vary depending on the
airline.

Amomtoo, I don't live my life in fear. Reason: I am prepared to defend myself.

I'm not paranoid. I'm just realistic. I have worked as a rape counselor and have seen far too many battered women. Why don't you try comforting a 13 year old girl who was raped by an intruder in her own house and then tell me women shouldn't have the right to protect themselves? I have heard those women's cries, and I cannot forget their pain.

Everyone can't retreat to the comfort of suburbia like you Amomtoo. What do you have to say to the women I counsel who are afraid to walk home at night in their impoverished neighborhoods and who are terrorized by drug dealers and gangs? Because of "anti-gun laws" these women can't afford to get a legal gun in the state of Massachusetts. Yet the thugs in their neighborhood easily obtain illegal weapons and use them to victimize others.

I wish I could close my eyes to reality and blissfully ignore the suffering of innocent people as easily as you can Amomtoo. Enjoy your limousine liberal world. It's so much more pleasant than reality!

Okay, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, you're right. We all need to be armed at all times. That will make the world a safer place. Calm down, put the gun down. Now please take your medication.

Hmmmm, Miss Multi-x, I didn't say YOU were paranoid, I said Ms. Quigley was. Hmmmm. A taste for the dramatic as well, I see. Somehow I'm not comforted that a person like yourself is armed.

Traveling Man, it's so much easier to joke and make witty little comments about mental illness than to rebut arguments with actual facts or any form of logical reasoning. Good job!

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make a callous joke about your mental illness. Please accept my apology.

Clearly, you would rather make jokes and personal attacks than have a serious discussion about guns and gun control.

It is interesting that you have chosen to attack me rather than legitimately debate what I wrote about how women are victimized in our society, how many are empowered to defend themselves by carrying guns, and how gun control laws hurt the poor women I meet as a rape counselor. (Note: None of their attackers used a legal gun. Unfortunately for law-abiding citizens, criminals don't obey the existing gun control laws.)

It is obvious that you lack either the maturity or the desire to have a serious discussion on this subject, so I am signing off.

So this isn't really a discussion about guns in checked luggage but one about gun control? Wrong board then.

Here's a fact you paranoid nincompoop. I'd rather be raped then have my childs brains blown out when he goes over to your house to play and accidentally picks up what he thinks is a toy gun.

If you want facts here is one. MANY more children die from accidental handgun wounds than people are saved from an attack while wielding a gun. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

What makes you think a 13 year old girl is going to have the presence of mind, composure and wherewithall to find the gun in her house and use it effectively against an intruder? Chances are the intruder would end up using it on her, and instead of being raped she would be dead too.

Gun-owning parents with legal guns teach their children about gun safety and keep the guns locked. In many states, that is the law. The per capita rate of accidental deaths with firearms is also at an all-time low, having decreased 91% since the all-time high in 1904. Firearm accidents account for less than 0.9% of accidental deaths and less than 0.04% of all deaths in the U.S. Among children, firearm accidents account for 2% of accidental deaths and 0.4% of all deaths. Most accidental deaths involve motor vehicles or are due to drowning, falls, fires, poisoning, medical mistakes, choking on ingested objects and environmental factors. Furthermore, the majority of the firearms accidental deaths were with illegal guns.

As for the claim that the gun is more likely to be turned against the victim than the criminal, statistics prove otherwise. Survey research during the early 1990s by criminologist Gary Kleck found as many as 2.5 million protective uses of firearms each year in the U.S. "[T]he best available evidence indicates that guns were used about three to five times as often for defensive purposes as for criminal purposes," Kleck writes. Analyzing National Crime Victimization Survey data, he found "robbery and assault victims who used a gun to resist were less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury than those who used any other methods of self-protection or those who did not resist at all." (Targeting Guns, Aldine de Gruyter, 1997)

Most protective firearm uses do not involve discharge of a firearm. In only 1% of protective uses are criminals wounded and in only 0.1% are criminals killed.

A Dept. of Justice survey found that 40% of felons chose not to commit at least some crimes for fear their victims were armed, and 34% admitted having been scared off or shot at by armed victims. (James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous, Aldine de Gruyter, 1986)

Thirty-three states now have Right-to-Carry (RTC) laws providing for law-abiding citizens to carry firearms for protection against criminals. Twenty-three states have adopted RTC laws in the last 15 years. Half of Americans, including 60% of handgun owners, live in RTC states.

Professor John R. Lott, Jr., and David B. Mustard, in the most comprehensive study to date of RTC laws' effectiveness concluded, "When state concealed-handgun laws went into effect in a county, murders fell about 8 percent, rapes fell by 5 percent, and aggravated assaults fell by 7 percent. . . . Will allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns save lives? The answer is yes, it will." (Lott, More Guns, Less Crime, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1998)

RTC states have lower violent crime rates on average: 22% lower total violent crime, 28% lower murder, 38% lower robbery, and 17% lower aggravated assault. The five states with the lowest violent crime rates are RTC states. (FBI) People who carry legally are by far more law-abiding than the rest of the public. In Florida, for example, only a fraction of 1% of carry licenses have been revoked because of gun-related crimes committed by license holders. (Florida Dept. of State)

This is a true story. In our town several years ago two women who were friends were apparently being trailed by the same crazy guy. They were both raped by this man three days apart. The first woman was raped in the morning when she was alone in the house, making the bed. The second woman was being raped in exactly the same manner -- while making her bed several days later, obviously this guy had been observing them both for some time. The second woman managed to get to her nightstand and pull out a gun -- the rapist saw it and killed her.
We used to keep a gun in our nightstand. My wife insisted we get rid of it.
The good news is that the man was caught and convicted.

you forgot the option of killing the intruder and you not getting raped & your child not getting hurt....Thanks to your gun !!

Oh, so being a card carrying member of the NRA makes one a "better mom"? You may know about gun safety, but visitors to your home may not, and lets not forget the accidents involving "educated children of gun owners" who wanted to demostrate their expertise with fire arms to show off to their friends.

Throw out all the percentages you want but any percent is too high, since if the gun wasn't in the home, a child would still be alive. And unless your working the night shift in a convenience store or live in some drug and crime infested area, you don't need one. If you are in fact living in an area where gun violence is an everyday occurrence, then by all means, pack that heat, but my guess is you're not.

Some people just like to carry guns.

That's horrid. I hear of cases like this frequently. I also hear of cases where a gun saved the person. But buying a gun is useless unless you train with it and are prepared to shoot without hesitation. It only takes someone like me 1.5 seconds to fire a shot. That would have been enough time for that woman to fire a life-saving shot if she'd trained for that moment. What a waste of a life. I bought my wife a gun, and I go shoot with her once a week. That way she won't hesitate if she ever needs to use it.