Protect your port with a gun””on an airplane

[jdaw1]

Here’s a strange way to ensure your checked luggage doesn’t go missing on domestic American flights: put a weapon inside and declare as much to the Transport Security Administration (TSA). Under TSA regulations, the weapon must be packed in a hard-sided case and secured with an unbreakable lock. This means pilfering is impossible, and as a bonus the bag will be tracked more assiduously from check-in to baggage reclaim.
!

• All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare...I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.
  
  That's the procedure. The case is extra-tracked...TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

The blog ponders the merits of using this to protect a camera, but it would presumably work as well for valuable bottles of wine.

[Andy Velebil]

So does this mean I should get a cheap little gun to take with me everytime I fly. I can legally carry it in any state in the US now.

[Glenn E.]

So does this mean I should get a cheap little gun to take with me everytime I fly. I can legally carry it in any state in the US now.

Only if you want to check your luggage every time you fly.

I can see doing it (if legal, like it is for you) if you're going to be checking your luggage anyway, but I almost never check bags so for me it would be silly.

[SushiNorth]

This has come up recently in other discussions, too. Meanwhile, I was easily carrying 2.5 bottles of port, packed in Styro and bubble wrap, closed up in a black trash bag, then secured in the center of my bag. At check-in, i had a "Fragile" tag placed on the bag. Everything arrived intact. This is not the first time I have traveled this way with wine, and it seems to be very effective.