Posted on 01/22/2008 7:01:21 PM PST by RDTF
A man alerted Transportation Security Administration officials early Sunday morning that he had gotten through the main security checkpoint with a handgun, Fox 5 has exclusively learned.
Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority Police were called to the checkpoint where the man, identified as Gregory Hinkle, turned over his firearm and was given a summons for a misdemeanor for violating Virigina Code 18.2-287.01 which prohibits firearms in an airport terminal with exceptions for law enforcement and checked luggage.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdc.com ...
TSA was probably too busy stopping a federal agent from getting through security.
Something smells once again...
If he got through, why did he “alert” officials???
Uh .... I think I would have gone back out and kept my mouth shut, and never repeated such a stupid mistake.
But, hey, that’s me ....
He’ll now be “red flagged” on all future flights because he tattled on the Keystone Cops.
Prospective Darwin candidate....not likely.
"Testing response" for groups seeking our destruction...very likely.
Another “idiot” making a point. Or someone alerting the feds that it can be done? I, for one, don’t believe that anyone wanting to do such, can’t pull it off.
Barry!? ... Barry Switzer? ... Is that you?
LOL!
But, but... those are GOVERNMENT employees. How can such a thing be possible?
(sarcasm)
Hopefully, they took away his fingernail clippers.
He wasn’t carrying a bomb.
Maybe he just wanted to protect himself.
I think that these days, everyone on board should be carrying.
No terrorist is going to hijack a plane full of armed passengers.
I'm just guessing the gun-toter was FBI or Postal Inspection Service ~ only guys I've known who make the fact they're carrying a piece "public" ~
Oh, yeah, the air marshalls, the three Arabs, and the various professional athletes didn't show up for their luggage.
darn, hot cops and pro athletes - I’m flying on all the wrong planes!
I flew from Phoenix to San Jose to visit my uncle and his family over New Years holiday. I am a nurse and have a work tote. I grabbed my pen case from this tote at the last minute and put it in my purse. Got to San Jose w/o any problem. Towards the end of my trip, I go to get a pen out of said case. Come to find out I had left a 6 - 7 “ hemostat in there. Ooops! How it got through x-ray, I’ll never know. I put it in with my checked luggage.
Guess we know what they think is dangerous.
You want the ROP representatives with guns on an airplane? I understand your point, but, everyone on a plane with guns! No, better yet, increase the number of air marshals on each flight. Train and arm flight attendants and pilots might be a better way to do.
Of course.
I was being realllly sarcastic.
Sorry it wasn’t obvious.
: )
Dense are our middle name! Duh! When the meds kick in, logic and observational powers go out! ;-)
Be alert....we need all the lerts we can get!!!!
maybe he is a cop?
I have a friend who has a concealed carry permit who almost always has his firearm on is person. He had to rush out of town on a business trip and the trip that was pushed up so in the rush he forgot he still had his firearm as he went through security. The DA from the city of Denver, (they hate the concealed carry law), charged him with a felony carrying mandatory prison! He went to trial and was acquitted, but that was one expensive middle age moment for he and his family.
If he got through, why did he “alert” officials???
Because he probably realized a misdemeanor in VA was better than a federal felony by taking the gun on board an aircraft, which was his next stop.
I think in many states you are allowed to carry concealed in the terminal. Just not thru security.
Yes indeed, they are government employees just like teachers, post office employees etc. Hillary wants them to provide your health care, scary huh?
Or doing cavity checks on grandmothers!
Isn’t a hemostat just a pair of pliers with teeth to lock them closed?
The TSA is a government workfare program and a placebo for the public. It does nothing useful. It’s another big X on the negative side of Bush’s ledger.
Some moron said that.
Yes, they look like scissors.
TSA was probably too busy stopping a federal agent from getting through security.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Or confiscating a Medal of Honor from a Retired Marine.
That is what should have happened from the beginning.
Instead, they chose the classic liberal stance of trying to take everything away from everybody (except themselves, of course).
Me... I'm going to corner the market with RKBA Airlines. Carry what you want, as long as you can either keep it in a holster or in the overhead compartment. Use only airline approved ammo for your caliber. Those choosing NOT to carry will be charged a nominal $25 "protection" fee. Aircrew will be required to carry at all times while on duty.
Folks attempting to bring explosives on the plane will be allowed to board, taken to 35k feet, and ejected from the aircraft.
Yeah, but at which point who could possibly know about the gun besides himself...
Which begs the question, if someone realizes that they have broken the law (state or Federal) and you realize it was not an intentional or malicious act in doing so) and in this case the “system” failed to catch this in time...
Where is the “real” crime??? Who was more culpable, or negligent in this case...
I’m all for floowing the letter of the law, and understand fully the consequenses of failing to do so, intentionally or not...
But in this case I see the more damning offense being the screeners failing once again to detect this violation...
You and I both know that we’ve heard of similar incidents like this where most, if not all of the offenders have stated that they just didn’t realize there was a gun in there bag...
I personally do a dump of any bag I take on any flight just to make sure what is in there before I step out my front door...Some people do not, therefore things like this happen...
I am not excusing that oversight, because I know I would go to great lengths to keep this from happening to me, and that if I did travel with a firearm, I know the procedures in doing so where I am not violating the law...
This is definetly a gut-check in what you are prepared to do in a case like this...
I would have probably made up a story where I had an emergency and left the airport terminal and either proceeded to my vehicle to stow the gun while on that trip (vice all the issues and problems with that exercise) or gone home to stow it properly...I might have even gone back to get an approved case for the gun and checked it in...
All of which is if I had the time...And no where would I have admitted to carrying a gun past the secure point in the terminal...That would be my dirty little secret...Not that I would admit to it...hehehe
That way there is a reduced chance of taking that ride that can screw you for the rest of your life...
In this case it is apparent to me that honesty is NOT the best policy, regardless of your intentions...
If you were a bad guy, with bad intentions, would you even care anyway...
Something tells me this is just another one of those “I didn’t know I had it with me” deals...And the TSA screeners failed to catch it in time...And this guy thought it would be best to admit to it and make it right...If I were a Judge in this case (regardless of my personal beliefs about the Second Amendment and other gun laws, etc etc), I would dissmis this charge, esponge the record, and chide the TSA for failing to do their job properly...
Just my opinion...And this would apply to ALL of thee types of cases...
They probably went, “Hey, there’s a 6-7” hemostat...”
“Hey Joe, wake up, I’m going on break.”
Make sure if you use that in a tagline...You include a big fat (/sarc) in there...hehehe
“If’d da glove don’t fit, you must aquit.”
Remember that one???
There's actually a LOT of people who would do - and have done - such a thing. They're obeying the law while exercising their rights, realize they made a mistake and were not caught, and in a fit of uprightness do exactly what they have been told to do: contact the "authorities", fess up, and hand it over. They just don't realize that there's a next step they have _not_ been told about, and it involves LEOs not being their friends after all.
He’d probably forgotten he had it with him, and realized it after he’d passed through the checkpoint. He did the smart thing by reporting himself promptly, before he got caught with it. It’s a lot easier come forward and explain that you forgot you had it and realized it after security missed it, than to get caught with it and then try to convince the authorities that you hadn’t realized you had it with you.
Very true, and while I question why you would want to be honest about your infraction, I do understand it is good to be honest...
I would just like to see the people who do screw it up be JUST as liable (and potentially just as punishable) for the infraction...
I believe it would straighten out a lot of problems all the way around...
While I agree with the honesty, like I stated in my last post...
Where in the process are you going to get “caught” after you pass through the detectors, and possibly even a physical search, in all of this...
I have not seen any security better than in Israel when it comes to the airline industry over there...At ANY time you can be told and pulled aside to have the same thing done 2-3 times before you step on any aircraft over there...And you don;t even want to react in anyway other than in total compliance...Any resentment, and you can be assured you won’t get on an airplane that day...
That will not happen here...So therefore a low precentage of the flying public are sometimes unaware of some of the things that are “against the rules” to take with you on a flight, sans all the “awareness” since 9-11...
But thats beside the point...
If in th eunlikely event I do happen to use my “range bag” as a carry on...(Figure those odds forst of all) and I happen to have a cute little Bersa .380 shoved in the bottom of that bag...And it makes it through security...I may ponder longer than most to think I might not say a damn thing, because I am not going to be searched on the way out...
And if it did happen, to take care of the return trip...You can always mail that thng back to you at home if you do not have an airline rated case for the trip home...
All sorts of things you can do if you put yourself in this guys shoes...
SO: did this guy do anything that was WRONG? I say that America was not won with a registered gun. All REAL Americans must put our 2nd Amendment FIRST!!!
If he was a cop, he wouldn't have been breaking the law. And thus wouldn't have been charged with anything.
That was Joe Foss While he was a Marine pilot in WW-II, the top one with 26 kills, he transferred to the National Guard, and eventually retired as an Air National Guard, and thus AF Reserve too, General. General Foss, who also served as Governor of South Dakota, commissioner of the old American Football league, and President of the NRA, passed away on January 1, 2003.
I accidently took a box of .45 ACP on a flight to Orlando. If I’d had time, I would have found a range and shot them up. As it was, I just told the folks at the counter that they were in the bag, and since they were in the original box, was told that was enough. Can’t remember if they tagged the bag or not. But I made a point of telling the TSA guy at the “sniffer” and X-Ray machine that they were in there. No problem sir. I also had a good experience before the TSA was created, but after 9-11, when my nephew was taking two rifles home with him at Christmas time. They checked the double rifle case very thouroughly, and gently. Nephew took the bolts in his carry on. I guess they could have been used a clubs, but at least then, they let him take them that way. :)
Definitly not a banner day in TSA’s history...
Still makes me mad to this day...
It’s interesting that the TSA fired the screener at Reagan National Airport who let the passenger with the gun through security, yet they let police officers beat up passengers and keep their jobs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPNmxZwhMag
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