Looking at the meme about the Turkish Olympian, came a question. How do you bring weapon through borders ?
Sure for Olympian, it’s not a big deal, you may negotiate a “diplomatic suitcase” or have federation staff managing all the paperwork. But what about an amateur sport-shooter who want to travel to an event abroad. I imagine you can’t bring a gun to a plane, Do they just put them in the car and hope that nobody will check ? Do paperwork month in advance ?
Oh! I actually can personally answer this one. I’ve been a competitive air gun and rimfire .22 LR for years and even attended college on a rifle program scholarship at a D1 program (yes! The US has a major collegiate rifle program)
Traveling internationally depended much on where you were going. We competed at the international junior Olympic championships just outside of London one year in the UK. We had to package all ammo and firearms separately, in locked containers which ultimately wasn’t that big a deal. As with flying with firearms in the US, it ultimately comes down to how familiar those such as gate agents and check-in staff are at the airport with their country’s firearm travel laws. Flying out of the US was always easy as they’re used to firearms, but flying back to the US was sometimes a nightmare and we’d get to the airport up to 6 hours before a flight to deal with any BS.
Out of curiosity, could you share which are some of the bigger schools for collegiate shooting? I’ve never heard of any having such a program.
UK Rifle
WVU Rifle
University of Memphis Rifle
Ohio State Rifle
Akron Rifle
And quite a few more!
Army, Navy, Air Force academies each have their own D1 rifle programs as well.
Thank you for taking the time!