Stan,
I agree with his (and your) questioning that aspect of the silly criteria that being able to open the case while locked to a small gap is a problem. Of course, if someone did unlatch your Pelican case but it was still locked I would not want to see that firearm after being rattled around in the hold. I really was responding to the statement:
"Just how many times have passengers either jumped onto the tarmanac (sic) and grabbed firearms from a locked case and caused an incident, or crawled down intoi the luggage hold and obtained a checked firearm and caused issues?"
Locked cases prevent theft is my only point. The other stuff is eyewash, and TSA always focuses on the last threat, it seems. If handlers will open your luggage and steal electronics and jewelry they will steal your gun. If a ground crew member can steal an airplane as happened recently in Seattle certainly a firearm is in the realm of the possible. I haven't flown with a gun for a while but I was always asked to wait for the gun to be screened (unlocked) and was then paged to lock the case in front of the TSA agents.
I like the ATA-rated SKB cases, since they are a little lighter. We use Pelican cases at work for shipping scientific gear and they are the gold standard for that.
Bruce
