Southwest canceled a former Army Ranger’s flight over a gun case, saying ‘You don’t want to follow company policies,’ then Delta cleared it

As a former Army Ranger and Utah gun range owner, Brock Brown (brobrownie) has a system in place to travel with his firearms. However, what was supposed to be a routine trip out of Tampa, Florida, on Southwest Airlines turned into an exercise in frustration for the content creator. In an Instagram post that captured part of his conversation with the check-in staff, he recorded the supervisor canceling his flight, saying, “You don’t want to follow company policies.”

The video that went on to get over a million views recorded Brown highlighting his Pelican hard case and the additional gun cases within the suitcase. He angrily said, “This is not a hard case considered by his standard. This is not a firearms case considered by his standard. With locks, with a lock, this is not able to be opened and got into. Okay, but by his standard, it doesn’t meet what they need. So they’re canceling my flight.”

Brown goes on to lay out his story in the caption. He claimed a Southwest supervisor named Jose told him that his Pelican case “was not an acceptable firearms case and I needed a hard case with its own locks inside of my hard case to hold the firearm.” After he was initially rebooked, he wrote that he “ran to Home Depot and got a Milwaukee pack out with a lock.” He alleged that Jose rejected that too, saying it did not meet safety standards, and that the lock and cases could be broken into. 

Brown says the supervisor called him aggressive

Brown said that when he tried to demonstrate that the clear panel on his Pelican case, which Jose was worried about, wouldn’t break, the supervisor labeled him aggressive and canceled his flight. He also alleged that Jose said he would no longer be able to fly with Southwest but later clarified, after Brown threatened to file a complaint, that the ban was only for that specific flight. Brown also shared how he resolved his travel.

He wrote, “IF YOURE FLYING WITH FIREARMS GO WITH A COMPETENT AIRPINE LIKE [Delta] I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM. I went to them and within 30 min I had a new flight, cleared baggage without any problem, my pelican meets the policy. Took my stuff to TSA and had no problem, my pelican meets their need.”

According to the Transportation Security Administration, travelers may transport unloaded firearms in a locked, hard-sided container as checked baggage. The TSA states that the container must completely secure the firearm from being accessed and that locked cases that can be easily opened are not allowed. Crucially, the agency notes that only the passenger should have the key or combination to the lock.

Brown’s viewers were rather confounded by the situation, with many noting that both Pelican and Milwaukee are considered the best hard cases on the market. One user saw the problem as a lack of “continuity between [the flight’s] arbitrary policies and the TSA policies.” Users also pointed out various inconsistencies in the policies.

Users specifically pointed out that “TSA does not require a second hard case inside the first one, nor does it ban clear panels when the outer case is locked and padded.” They further noted that Southwest’s policies match this and that there was “Nothing about nested cases or rejecting clear sides.”

Finally, one person identifying as an airline supervisor argued that the situation was handled incorrectly, noting that staff should contact the right department or TSA if they are unsure about regulations instead of creating an uncomfortable situation for the passenger.

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify Southwest’s side of the story, as this account originates solely from Brown’s Instagram post.