You checked into a flight on a certain airline. Your bags and your pistols were on that same airline. Your bags and pistols were in the legal possession of that airline until they were picked upby you at the baggage claim. As I said before, firearms don't go onto the same carousel as baggage does. So the theft occurred while in the possession of the airline company. Have you spoken to them? They have some level of liability for the theft. Likely, an airline employee did the theft.

Yes I got a partial refund from the Airlines , Half of what they were worth

Name the airline.

American Airlines

I would be more concerned with validating that the S/N’s of the pistols are noted as stolen and not associated with you with a date fixed to the report. They will most likely be used in criminal acts, obviously.

I am willing to bet its a recurring problem. Somebody or somebodies side hustle. I bought insurance on my firearms separate from my homeowners policy. I had to give them a picture, serial numbel, model number, manufacterer for each one. Took awhile to wrap my head around that but ATF already has a list of gun owners and at least a partial list of what they own so I did it.

I would think that a missing firearm that had made it past security would be of great concern to them. Could they make it into the passenger section of the plane from there?

Apparently, they would much rather have them turn up in a mass shooting somewhere!

This is what is wrong with the system that is i place in this country .We have laws upon laws upon laws All well established that cover 99.999% of any and all aspects of what are crimes .And yet when laws are broken all the laws already in place are left by the wayside. And the person that committed no crime is left to deal with the fact that the laws are not enforced .And at the ae time he is somehow used as the reason the problem exists to begin with .

The law enforcement industry doesn't care if real criminals have guns; they just don't want you a me to have them.

I would be calling my congressman, senator, news media outlets, etc., until it gets embarrassing for someone.

If you paid for the flight with a credit card, there is a chance they might also cover part of your loss as lost/stolen/damaged luggage and contents.

https://awardwallet.com/blog/which-credit-cards-offer-lost-or-damaged-luggage-protection/

I'm going to disagree with that, Danny. As I said before, anything that is checked baggage, including cased firearms, is in the possession of the airline you're flying on. They are responsible for those checked items. Each airline has it's own gates, and it's own area where bags are stored and transported to their aircraft. Only their employees handle those bags. This doesn't apply to the skycaps, but they turn the bags over to the airline. However, you can't check a cased firearm with skycaps. Has to be at the TSA check station or a TSA person has to inspect the case before it is turned over to the airline. If firearms are getting stolen on a regular basis that would tip off alot of alarms to various agencies.
I suspect that while it seems like no one is interested in the theft of bearcubs guns, behind the scenes they are very interested. American likely did it's own investigation and got rid of anyone who may have been the guilty party. Imagine the bad press if the public found out firearms were stolen numerous times from a carrier.

ScottT, no, a firearm cannot get from a baggage compartment into the cabin. As an aircraft mechanic I have crawled inside 737 baggage compartments. The only way a gun gets into the cabin is if it is carried in there by a person or in that persons hand carry.

Really Martintrapper? You would think theft of firearms from an airport would be on the news if it was uncommon

To be on the news, the news people have to find out. Airlines, TSA, airport management, go to great lengths to make sure firearm theft remains uncommon and that few people outside the airport learn of thefts.

This ^^^

Everyone that says insurance or a credit card's insurance should cover the loss are missing the point.
Crime is too common place and it seems nobody cares.
Cameras everywhere , yet the airport security can't find or fix the problem?
It's getting to the point where the only thing that matters any more is faulting everyone but the ones that commit the crimes !

The Truth !

did you try calling local news stations? i still think its common. there are you tube videos about stolen/ damaged guns too

As I’m sitting on a flight about to leave Spokane…hoping mine make it back to GA with me, lol.