Question about guns and airlines

[Senator Jack]

Didn't know where to ask this one, so it ends up here.

I'm doing some research for a piece of short fiction and am wondering if anyone knows about gun restrictions on passenger aircraft in the 1960s. Were passengers once allowed to board with guns (pre-hijack days)? When did they start using metal detectors? Seems to me in films of the era, people just walked on a plane without going through any sort of security check. Any info will be helpful.

Thank you and kind regards,

Senator Jack

 

[scotrace]

History of Airline Security

Here you go, Jack.

 

[Barry]

Didn't know where to ask this one, so it ends up here.

I'm doing some research for a piece of short fiction and am wondering if anyone knows about gun restrictions on passenger aircraft in the 1960s. Were passengers once allowed to board with guns (pre-hijack days)? When did they start using metal detectors?

Thank you and kind regards,

Senator Jack

Jack,

Given the number of historians here, someone probably knows a great deal about this but I'll check the Code of Federal Regulations and the United States Code. If you need some authoritative sources in .PDF format I'll see if I can call my previous place of employment - they should be willing to give me a hand. They might be able to get some of the information from Hein Online - it goes back to 1936 for CFR.

There might be some good information in various amendments to the FAA Act of 1958. I'll also scan some 1960's copies of Title 14 (and 49?) of the CFR.

www.keepandbeararms.com seemed to have some good information.

Edit: I did not see Scotrace's message but that link seems great - most of the changes I'm finding occured in the 1970's.

Barry

 

[Barry]

http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/law_review_articles/firearms.htm

"In 1961, for the first time in aviation history, Congress enacted legislation to prohibit carriage of an accessible concealed weapon aboard an aircraft. [28] Also for the first time, the suggestion surfaced that passengers and carryon baggage should be searched for weapons."

 

[Senator Jack]

Thanks for the links, gentlemen. I've been searching all morning for some answers and didn't come up with anything. (admittedly, I find research to be rather tedious work) It does seem that before DB Cooper, you could board with anything you wanted.

Barry, if you lay your hands on some of that documentation, that would be great. Even a simple yes or no from someone who was connected with the airlines back then would suffice.

Thanks again and kind regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Senator Jack]

Boy, you're good!

 

[LaMedicine]

I've been on various international and domestic flights during the mid '50s to mid '60s. I don't remember going through any metal detectors or being frisked, nor our hand luggage being checked, but some of that might have had to do with diplomatic immunity in our case. There weren't any metal detectors then as far as I can remember.
I do remember going through metal detectors on my honeymoon in '76, but that was after a number of hijacks that took place in the Middle East and Asia, and even here in Japan, where the plane ended up going to North Korea.
In the mid '50s- mid '60s, most airlines opened their cockpit doors and let children take a peek during flight stops. The pilot often came out mid flight and greeted the passengers in person.
A personal experience here. Not the '60s, still 1955, but anyway. On an Air France flight, the pilot came out to greet the passengers, noted my baby brother, who was 1 1/2 years old at that time, as the youngest passenger on board, and took him up into the cockpit for a visit.
Airlines also gave out certificates for crossing the International Date Line up to the early '60s.
Also the planes were much smaller, and shook a whole lot more when they hit air turbulence.lol
Oh, yeah, they also handed out candies before take off, to chew to adjust our eardrums while the plane was rising to flight altitude.lol

 

[Senator Jack]

Barry kindly sent me an FAA document from 1969. I find this fascinating:

'In 1968 there were thirty successful hijackings of aircraft, seventeen of United States registration. In the first 33 weeks of 1969, there were 46 successful hijackings, including 27 of United States registration.'

You think we have troubles now? I remember all those jokes when I was a kid, but I never realized this seemed to be a weekly occurrence. (Oh, my God, we're being hijacked - Sandy Dennis, The Out Of Towners.)

Here's something else of interest from the same document. Again, written in 1969.

'Given the congestion which obtains at take-off of most flights, routine search of passengers and baggage would produce and intolerable situation unless it could be managed speedily and with a minimum of inconvenience to all concerned.'

We probably didn't have a quarter of the air traffic we have now and yet back then they were concerned with the logistics of passenger searches.

Seems metal detection didn't start till '73. Passengers were denied from travelling if they carried 'concealed' weapons. Don't know what this means. If you let them know you were carrying a gun, you could still bring it on board?

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

You can actually still take a firearm with you on aircraft, but it has to be declared, in checked baggage, and is subject to many regulations.

 

[Feraud]

You can actually still take a firearm with you on aircraft, but it has to be declared, in checked baggage, and is subject to many regulations.

Correct. In November of '04 my dad and I went hunting in New Mexico. We checked two rifles, cartridges, and camping suppies into baggage.
I experienced no undue delay based on our luggage. We declared our gear, it was inspected, and placed in with the other equipment. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Twitch]

In the States it definitely was after the DB Cooper deal that metal detectors were used. Before that your business was your business and there were no searches of any kind.