A couple of days ago, I came out of Tanzania via AMS and layed over for 24 hours to get some sleep prior to continuing my journey to Florida via Detroit.

I had been previously advised that having KLM hold my firearms during the layover involved nothing more than checking with the KLM baggage office duty supervisor on arrival in AMS and requesting that the guns be boarded the next day on my continuing connection. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

I did as advised, checking with the supervisor, who told me all would be taken care of, and hit the hotel for a snooze.

The next day, I obtained my boarding passes from the machine at the kiosk and proceeded to the baggage check-in to check my suitcase. That's where the problems began.

I was confronted by a check-in agent who didn't have the remotist clue what I was telling him and who knew absolutely nothing about my firearms. In fact, he called the cops to come and interview me.

I waited for a half hour with people crowding around me checking their luggage and no cops. I became adamant that he get a supervisor to handle my problem, which he finally did.

The supervisor, who happened to be a very bright, lovely lady, walked me over the the KLM passenger assistance desk. She and one of her colleagues finally solved the problem. It took time, however, and I almost missed my connection.

When I arrived in Orlando, the guns came off the flight as promised.

So my advice to anyone transiting AMS and laying over with firearms is to go directly to the passenger service desk prior to attempting to check hand luggage for departure. You will save yourself a lot of problems.