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She refused to let me lock ANYTHING. gun case nor luggage. Again, this was at counter, not in private room. She also wouldn't take my luggage. She said I had to take my luggage to some TSA screeners and declare it there. Off I went. They were nearby. This was not the area everyone walks through. This was a luggage droppoff area. 3 screeners behind a rope with an x-ray baggage machine behind them. I walked up and told them I was told to declare here. The 1st TSA guy said thank you, took my luggage and started walking off!!! I said "Wait, are you bringing that back??!! The ticketing agents wouldnt let my lock it!" to which he replied that I did not need it locked!?!! I told him that I do, both gun case and luggage. He said no, they dont really care. The other 2 agents were nodding in agreement. I told him I dont want that luggage going anywhere without a lock so he brought it back and let me lock the main bag and then off my luggage went. No lock on the hard gun case, just a TSA lock on my baggage.
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This happened to me at Ronald Reagan National Airport in DC. Counter person said don't lock hardcase, inspite of my insistence the procedures said otherwise. She insisted. OK. I'll go along to get along. WRONG! I roll bag around to X-ray (that's SOP for National, anyway) and TSA person says "good to go". Wait. Gun case unlocked !?! Supervisor gets paged. Meantime, luggage was on the belt and disappeared into the hole.
Long and short, Sup calls holding area to get my luggage recalled. Now everyone with a handie-talkie knows my luggage is "special". Supervisor gets his own licks in by strongly "suggesting" I lock outer bag with TSA lock, too. Bad all around. I was on needles and pins all the way, but as Bill says, "All's well that ends well".
The point? I should have halted the process between the check-in counter and X-ray machine, paged supervisor, explained situation and asked for an opportunity to lock the case before it disappeared. And yes, I did have the airline/TSA reg prinouts with me. Some readers may interchange the steps, but we agree in principle.
On a positive note, the supervisor revisited with counter person and very clearly explained the need to lock gun case before leaving counter.
I did not mind the inconvenience since I always come two and a half hours before flight time for situations like this and did my part, though indeliberately, in clarifying at least one person's understanding of the regs.