This time next week, we’ll all be recovering from our food coma, the inevitable result of eating way too much on Thanksgiving Day. That’s the way it should be, sitting around and stuffing our face with our families, reveling in the awesome that is being an American.

TSA, however, knows that a lot of us will be taking to the air in order to connect with those families. That’s good because, well, I don’t have a high opinion of the TSA so finding out they know anything is kind of a relief.

Yet they’re asking people for something and, frankly, it’s a reasonable request.

TSA officials are expecting a very week of travels starting this weekend, and they have an ask for gun owners.

They are urging everyone to look through their bags to make sure they aren’t bringing a firearm to the checkpoint line.

If you bring a gun to the checkpoint, whether it’s an accident or not, you could be fined thousands of dollars, and lose your pre-check in privileges for five years.

If you want to travel with a firearm, you must declare it at the ticket counter, fill out a form, and check it with your luggage.

I’m constantly surprised just how many people forget they have a gun in their bag. One might think that it would be impossible to forget–I can’t imagine how anyone can forget such a thing myself–but it happens often enough that it’s clear people do.

So, if you’re going to take a flight this holiday season, which is about to kick off, do yourself a favor and go through all your stuff to make sure your guns aren’t in there.

You’re also going to want to make sure there’s no ammunition in there. Some people find the odd round in their bag, something that fell out when they traveled via some other means, and TSA isn’t exactly fond of ammunition, either, so take care of that.

Every so often, we find out all about how many people are caught with guns by TSA. The agency that was supposed to stop terrorists and hasn’t caught a single one–and that managed to miss at least one firearm–catches more people making mistakes than anything else.

And then someone will use this as evidence that gun owners really aren’t that responsible. Yes, it’s nonsense when you consider the total number of guns in private hands in the United States, but they still make that case.

Besides, you don’t want the headache. Even if you’re like the state senator form Washington and get away with it on one leg, you’ll either have to risk it on the way home or go through the process to travel with a gun, which is kind of a pain.

Take a few minutes and make sure you’re good to go before you leave and save yourself and everyone else some headaches.

The TSA might be the butt of a lot of jokes, but they can still land you in hot water because you didn’t spend those few minutes.