Checking a gun is legal - if you do it properly

Right now - somewhere - someone if checking a firearm for a flight, and it's perfectly legal.

While the TSA confiscates hundreds of weapons at checkpoints in carry-on bags, a gun owner who follows the rules can travel with a weapon as checked baggage, which Florida airport shooter Esteban Santiago apparently did.

TSA requires the weapon be unloaded, must be packed in a hard side case, plastic, wood or metal and it must be locked.

"When you go to check in for your flight, you got to check in at the counter and declare you have the firearm," said TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein.

Ammunition magazines and a small amount of small arms ammunition that is boxed can also be carried.