My local airport is privately owned / public use, and the owner (with whom I
share a hangar) has given explicit permission for us pilots and aircraft owners
to carry while on the premises... that is as long as the firearm is of
sufficient caliber and not a wimpy little pea-shooter... after all this is rural
Texas and we've got a reputation to uphold. We even have a couple private
residences on the field, and the occupants of both are... umm, shall we say,
strong supporters of the 2nd Amendment. Also many members of our airport
community are either active or retired members of law enforcement. You never
know who might be carrying at this airport. Some may even carry openly a sidearm
in a holster and nobody even thinks twice when seeing this... usually the first
thought to occur is that someone probably found a rattlesnake or suspected rabid
varmint on the premises, and these days shooting the rattlesnakes is a last
resort, we try to capture them alive instead to be milked.