Posted on 10/28/2011 10:29:23 AM PDT by markomalley
In the latest scandal to rock the perpetually inept Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a loaded gun slipped through “security” at a major U.S. airport and the agency claims there was no system breakdown because it was not its duty to intercept the weapon.
This may lead Americans to wonder who is responsible for securing the nation’s transportation system. After all, Congress created the monstrous TSA, with 50,000 employees, to protect mainly aviation after the 2001 terrorist attacks. In the name of security, travelers go through a circus-like routine that includes invasive pat-downs, body scanners, removing shoes and giving up liquids to board a plane.
Packing a loaded weapon into a checked bag is another story. It happened over the weekend at Los Angeles International Airport while TSA agents napped through the process. The loaded .38-caliber handgun was subsequently discovered by airport ramp employees when it fell out of a duffel bag as they were about to load it, according to California’s largest newspaper.
Here is where it gets really good. TSA officials claim they are not required to screen for loaded weapons in checked luggage and an agency spokesman played if off as an “issue” for someone else to deal with. Here is the direct quote from the TSA official published in the paper’s follow-up story on the incident: “It may be an issue for some agency or the airline, but it's not a TSA issue. Our mandate is to screen baggage for explosives."
Inevitably, this has ignited fury among local police and lawmakers since it’s illegal to transport a loaded or unloaded gun in an airplane without properly declaring it. Rules and regulations for the transportation of firearms and the penalties for violating them are even posted on the TSA’s website. “These regulations are strictly enforced,” the TSA asserts on its website. “Violations can result in criminal prosecution and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.”
But who is strictly enforcing the regulations? A congresswoman, who represents Los Angeles and sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, is demanding answers. In a letter to Administrator John S. Pistole, Congresswoman Janice Hahn asks “if TSA is not enforcing its own regulations about loaded firearms in luggage, who is?” Hahn also mentions how “troubling” it is that ten years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, an undeclared, unsecured and loaded firearm escaped detection in baggage screening.
These sorts of lapses are par for the course for the TSA, which has virtually unlimited resources and unconditional support from Congress and the White House. The agency has made headlines over the years for guns and bombs regularly getting past screeners during random tests at major airports, failing to meet federal standards by not screening cargo and passengers on hundreds of thousands of planes that fly over the U.S. annually and approving background checks for a dozen illegal immigrants working in sensitive areas of a busy U.S. airport.
A few months ago a federal report blasted a $212 million TSA screening program, known as Passenger by Observation Techniques (SPOT), that promised to detect terrorists at U.S. airports. Instead the TSA’s highly specialized Behavior Detection Officers failed to stop terrorists from boarding planes on at least 23 occasions, according to congressional investigators who conducted the probe.
Larry K: STFU
This is an interesting statement considering how rectal TSA gets when they find ammo in your checked luggage. They insist it has to be carried in the original packaging and not in magazines or plastic shell boxes.
Isn't that what TSA is really for?
Well, no wander he didn't think it was their job to find pistols in the check in baggage. He is not an introspective person.
Eh? Come on....?! :o)
Of course once they make it past the gate passengers have stopped all attempts to take over a plane.
“A few months ago a federal report blasted a $212 million TSA screening program, known as Passenger by Observation Techniques (SPOT), that promised to detect terrorists at U.S. airports. Instead the TSA’s highly specialized Behavior Detection Officers failed to stop terrorists from boarding planes on at least 23 occasions, according to congressional investigators who conducted the probe.”
THE ISRAELIS SEEMS TO HAVE THIS TECHNIQUE DOWN PAT....TOO BAD WE REFUSE TO USE THEIR SYSTEM....
Well, there’s nothing left to do but get rid of the TSA. It shouldn’t take more than a week.
The TSA doesn’t check for loaded weapons in checked bags because they can’t fire themselves and no one is in the luggage compartment to reach them.
I know several people that travel with guns in their baggage. Technically you are supposed to unload them but I think they are making a big deal out of something that doesn’t need to be.
The biggest issue is the owner of the gun is lucky thw ramp agent didn’t just stick it in his pocket & keep going. Theft is the biggest deal with checked bags because you can’t lock them anymore.
Why does it matter if someone has a loaded weapon in a piece of CHECKED luggage?
Another reason this should be privatized. Then the government would have someone to blame until the details of how the chosen contractor was hired and who got kickbacks for the choice.
If this were a private (free enterprise) company, heads would role. Folks would be fired. There would be some accountability. Only the government gets away with, "i-ownt-know. It's not my job. Let's investigate."
To which peers nod approvingly, "Yes. Good work. An investigation will fix this. Then we'll be able to request more funding to find and fix this issue."
“Isn’t that what TSA is really for? “
I hear your sarcasm, so I’m sure you know what the real purpose of the TSA is. It has nothing to do with security. It is to condition people to accept a police state and total government control over their movements. Have you heard how the TSA wants to expand from airports to train stations and roadside checkpoints? The TSA is all about empowering a bunch of high school dropouts and making them jackbooted thugs that the sheeple have to submit to.
because there is a possiblility however slight that
with a round in the chamber the gun could decide on its own to ‘go off’
in the cargo hold and possibly cause an in flight emergency
(hit a person, pierce the aircraft outer skin, depressurize cabin, hit a fuel line or vital cable).
Seriously? Perhaps for the same reason you don't point a loaded weapon at your head.
No, but I keep one in the glove box of my car.
Have these folks been unionized yet?
...and one in my briefcase.
Heck doesn’t even have to be a mythical “on it’s own” situation, something could bump against the trigger. If the gun just “fell” out of the luggage, it sure as in hell wasn’t properly secured.
I’m going overseas in December and I can’t help but wonder how they’ll handle me at TSA. I’ve got one foot in an ankle brace, the other in a removable humongous plastic cast, and can barely walk with a cane. What makes me even more of a target for these jokers is the fact that I’m granny age, 66.
I think they’re going to have a party when they see me.
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