Posted 2005-07-07 by ThatIsAFact
( Read 622 times with 10 comments , with 14 clickthroughs. )

Here is the link for MSP Airport Police


I had an experience recently, pertaining to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, which illustrates why we must politely insist on being shown a concrete legal authority for things that we are told.
This occurred several weeks ago, which was several weeks after the Minnesota legislature re-enacted the Personal Protection Act.

I was planning to meet a loved one at the MSP airport. I called the number listed on the Airport Police website as the "On-Duty Sergent" (sic), 612-726-5107. I asked the man who answered if they had any policy regarding a permit holder carrying a concealed firearm in the areas of the airport OUTSIDE the security checkpoints. (I assumed that the man who answered was an Airport Police officer, which, as we will see, turned out to be a mistaken assumption.) "Don't do it!," he said, adding that one may not bring a firearm anywhere around the airport. I politely said that I did not see any such provision in the state law, and asked if he could point me to it. He said I would have to call the federal Transportation Security Administration for an explanation, and he gave me their toll-free number, 1-866-289-9673.

It took me awhile to get through to a live TSA staffer. After I explained the question, she suggested I call the local airport police. I said, "But they sent me to you!" After some minutes of waiting on hold while the TSA staffer consulted with other staffers, she said that as far as she could determine, "we have no rule against it," as long as the permit holder remains outside the security zone.

I called back the airport police "on-duty sergeant" number, and the same man answered. I explained that I had called the TSA as instructed, and had been informed their was no federal rule to bar a permit holder from carrying inside the airport. He replied emphatically that the airport could exclude firearms "just like a store can, or a church, for the safety of those who use the airport." I replied that the Minnesota law does allow private businesses to exclude firearms by posting their premises in a specified manner, and I asked if the airport was so posted. At this point, he abruptly said, "I am going to put you through to Sergeant So-and-So." Moments later I was patched through to a real police sergeant, who was driving around somewhere on the airport premises. I repeated the inquiry and told him what I had previously been told. The Real Sergeant (who gave me his name) was businesslike. He said that it was NOT illegal for a permit holder to carry concealed on the airport premises, but that "if we see the gun," the permit "and probably the gun" would be "checked." I understood this to mean that the carrier would be detained while the validity of the permit was checked and the serial number of the gun run through some database.

I complained about being given misinformation in the earlier conversations. He said that there has been some discussion of the concealed-carry issue on the airport board, but that no decision had been reached to post the airport (which I suspect would not be permitted under the state law, anyway).

I then called back the "on-duty sergeant" number and told the phone answerer that I wanted him to know that the Real Sergeant said there was no prohibition, "so next time somebody asks, you will know what the correct answer is." He interrupted, "I know, I was listening in on the conversation -- so now you have your answer." I said, "Yes, but what you told me earlier was wrong." He said, "I'm not going to argue with you, and now you have your answer." I said, "What you told me earlier, twice, you just made up, and that is not the job of a law-enforcement officer." He said, "I am not a law enforcement officer, and now you have your answer." I said, "Yes, but it should not have been so much work to get it."

In short, this guy just decided to tell a citizen what he thought the law OUGHT to be -- twice -- instead of what it really was. The poor fellow has a clerical job, but he apparently suffers from the grandoise delusion that he is a one-man state legislature.

I proceded to meet my party at the airport -- his exit gate happened to be right outside the Airport Police station, or one of them -- without incident. I would be interested to hear if anybody else has had good or bad experiences with this agency.

Let's get a few guys and do some open carry there. I wonder if it would make the news, not because it's wrong but because I'll bet those airport guys are a tad high strung (and not without merit).

Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean you should.

Thanks for the clarification, Mobocracy. I was hoping that was the case. Can you just imagine the PR nightmare that would befall all of us if the media ever took off on such an event. I much prefer the maturity which has been demonstrated on this site so many times.