[Kickass Conservative]

You will love this story.

Years ago my B-I-L and I were flying to Vegas from Orange County John Wayne Airport.

He had some Cigars in his Carryon, and a Cigar Punch made from “shudder”, a 45 Cartridge. You pulled it apart and the round cutter was on the ass end of the Bullet. It cost about $20 when I bought it for him as a Birthday Gift.

It was a “stop the presses” TSA Moment. They carefully examined the Punch. They took it apart, put it back together, asked us what it was for (I guess TSA Agents don’t smoke Cigars), took it aside to examine it more thoroughly and then the THREE Agents decided that my B-I-L could not take it on the Aircraft.

At that point my B-I-L voluntarily surrendered the obvious Terrorist implement of death and destruction.

$20 down the shitter, but the Aircraft arrived safe and sound in Sin City thanks to the valiant efforts of TSA.

[SkyDancer]

One woman had the outline of a gun on her purse, I’m not sure if embossed or a metal outline of one. Guess what?

[kiryandil]

Did you ever hear about the TSA dudes flipping out about Joe Foss' Medal of Honor?

They thought the metal arms of the star were "dangerous", and could be used as a "weapon".

This is from CNN, before it was VFNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/02/27/war.hero.cnna/

[Polynikes]

I used to work for those knuckleheads when they first opened up. It was routine to confiscate cigar cutters, as asinine as that sounds. We even took scissors away from pilots. When I questioned that reasoning, insomuch as they had command of the plane, the mall ninja trainer told me someone may force their way into the cockpit and go straight for the scissors.

Uhh ok impeccable logic there Francis. That was one of the first red flags into the systems thought process.

On a secondary note we had a USCG member come through with an expended 25mm brass casing from the cutter he was on in the Gulf. It was a piece of memorabilia for him. I held his bag for a short time and have him wait while I sought out a supervisor for an opinion. Under “normal” circumstances it would be confiscated immediately. I made sure to ask the supervisor who was ex-SF. His opinion was that it was just a brass cylinder(which it was) and to let it pass. We told him to keep it in his bag and don't show it around. He was very grateful. All TSA at that time weren't mindless drones but can't say that now.

[Bonemaker]

The TSA geniuses took Joe Foss’s congressional medal of honor...too much like a Chinese throwing star.

[nevergore]

Had a similar incident at Heathrow Airport in London.....

The British “TSA” finally let me through after arguing....

Bullet cigar punches are sooooooo dangerous...