Suggestion for preventing theft from luggage:

According to recent entry over at BoingBoing your luggage gets preferential anti-theft treatment from the airlines if you declare a weapon, even a harmless STARTER PISTOL in your luggage. Accoring to article on boingboing.net (scroll down a bit on the page), you will be allowed to lock your luggage, as airlines wouldn't want to "loose" a case with a weapon! . I never owned any weapon and I thought I would never come up with a good reason to want to own one... but this might be it!

Don't try this on a flight into Europe........