Hotel searches bag - takes guns

[Perd Hapley]

Gotta question/complaint on this thing.

https://youtu.be/s1Gb5UUlV-k

tl;dr version is that a gun-toober flew into Vegas for the SHOT Show, and gave his bags to the bellhop at his favorite hotel. He had 2 Glocks in the luggage. He went to the casino, and then, when he got to his room, he learned the hotel searched his bags, and put his guns in some basement gun vault. Made it really inconvenient for him to get them back.

1. Serves him right for giving his guns to some guy.

2. Is there no law against a hotel searching a guest's bag, much less seizing property?

[Perd Hapley]

3. I was going to add an Austin Powers joke about Swedish-built marital aids found in luggage, but this is a family website.

[Ben]

While I don't always respect property rights (Hi Costco!), I understand and will obey them if I'm caught with my gun in a "no guns allowed" business, and if they want me to leave, I probably will (depending on state laws regarding that business's right to put up a "no guns" sign). So I guess I understand James' POV on property rights.

Nevertheless, property rights are a two way street. I would be infuriated if my bags and personal belongings were searched by some private entity, especially if, as I'm getting from the video, there was nothing posted about bag searches at the hotel front door. How was he even targeted? Do they have a scanner at the hotel? Otherwise, are they just randomly searching bags, which might often have very personal, but legal contents?

The whole walk through the hotel and layers of inept security guards for an hour just to get to his guns was a bad parody.

In the end, I guess the main lesson is "concealed means concealed". I bet he's wishing he would have taken the two minutes to move the gun from his bag to his person outside the airport restricted area.

IIRC, James is an attorney, though I don't know in what area of the law.

[Northwoods]

Given the shooting in Vegas (Mandalay Bay?) a few years ago it wouldn’t surprise me if hotels are using airport style baggage scanners.  In India all the hotels that cater to westerners do that because of the Mumbai terrorist attack 10-15 years ago. 

I’m guessing they scanned his bags and saw the guns.  Took them out and put them in a safe because of some policy enacted in response to the shooting.  I doubt they randomly pawed through his bags.

[MillCreek]

^^^I think you are right, and it was probably driven by the civil liability lawsuits against the hotel after the shooting.  I would be curious to know if all the big Strip hotels are now doing something similar.

[Ben]

I can't even remember anymore - is this the hotel where the shooter was?

If so, I may not like, but understand the over the top caution to avoid lawsuits. If I knew that was the hotel, I would not stay there and just walk to SHOT from the next hotel over. Or else do like his buddies did, and just wear my gun.

Of course I haven't been to Las Vegas since I turned 21(other than driving through) and you couldn't get me there if you offered me the penthouse suite for free.

I have stayed at the Boomtown Reno on occasion when overnighting there back when I was road tripping out of CA. I was always packing. One of their doors had a "no guns" sign. Other doors didn't. 

[Perd Hapley]

Would any of you just give your bag-o-guns to a bellhop? That seems completely irresponsible to me.

[Northwoods]

I can't even remember anymore - is this the hotel where the shooter was?

If so, I may not like, but understand the over the top caution to avoid lawsuits. If I knew that was the hotel, I would not stay there and just walk to SHOT from the next hotel over. Or else do like his buddies did, and just wear my gun.

Of course I haven't been to Las Vegas since I turned 21(other than driving through) and you couldn't get me there if you offered me the penthouse suite for free.

I have stayed at the Boomtown Reno on occasion when overnighting there back when I was road tripping out of CA. I was always packing. One of their doors had a "no guns" sign. Other doors didn't. 

I’m guessing all hotels on the strip are doing the same thing with regard to guns.  It probably doesn’t matter if he (or SHOT) were at Mandalay Bay or another hotel.

[Ben]

Would any of you just give your bag-o-guns to a bellhop? That seems completely irresponsible to me.

There is that.  I don't even like handing them over to TSA and letting them take my bag to a back room. I have on occasion left bags in the hotel baggage room when travelling for work if there was some big delay between hotel checkout and my flight, but never with anything in them that I cared a lot about.

[dogmush]

I stayed in the Bellagio last September and there was no bag check or scanners. Walk in, check in (on app), give bags to bellhop and go to room.

Now we went with him to our room rather than stopping in the casino, but they definitely weren't scanning bags.

YMMV

[Andiron]

I stayed at the Venetian in 2019*.  My pelican case was hard to miss.  They were polite,  but insisted on tucking it down in a basement vault.  I told them when I was leaving the next day and my case was waiting for me at the desk. 

*Best deal on Priceline.  I hate Vegas,  but had to kill an evening waiting for a flight.

** They got my rifles,  I didn't volunteer my CCW and hung on to that.

[Devonai]

I watched the video.  I have to wonder why he didn't get the guns back the first time, strap up outside, then come back at the end of the day when the staff has likely forgotten all about it (or a shift change turned them all over).  Maybe I missed a detail about why that wasn't an option.

I've not been to Vegas, but I'm in the habit of re-arming myself after traveling from an unfriendly state to a friendly state.  Most commonly coming back from VT or NH, having transited through MA.

[BobR]

The Venetian has themselves pretty well covered,  https://www.venetianlasvegas.com/resort/about-us/faq.html , it addresses both luggage search and weapons policy. Probably the same as any strip hotel.

bob

[gunsmith]

I can't even remember anymore - is this the hotel where the shooter was?

If so, I may not like, but understand the over the top caution to avoid lawsuits. If I knew that was the hotel, I would not stay there and just walk to SHOT from the next hotel over. Or else do like his buddies did, and just wear my gun.

Of course I haven't been to Las Vegas since I turned 21(other than driving through) and you couldn't get me there if you offered me the penthouse suite for free.

I have stayed at the Boomtown Reno on occasion when overnighting there back when I was road tripping out of CA. I was always packing. One of their doors had a "no guns" sign. Other doors didn't. 

next time your here, lmk in advance and I hopefully will have the money to buy you a beverage .
oh yeah, no one pays attention to "no gun signs" I shop in whole foods/sprouts with all the blue anon hippies and open carry .

the one time it was a problem was because I was also violating the mask mandate  .... most folks just ignore or actually do not see open carry - ccw is super easy because they actually have to legally tressspass you - if you violate the trespass - it is a 25 dollar fine, so, be careful - it is less than a traffic ticket in importance