Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Loaded gun gets past TSA screeners in Houston airport
examiner.com ^ | 12/16/2010 | Joe Newby

Posted on 12/20/2010 6:42:53 AM PST by FredJake

Listening to Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano and TSA administrator John Pistole, one gets the impression that the pat-downs and body scanners are just the thing to keep us safe in the air.

Not so fast - ABC News reported Thursday that a loaded gun made it through a security checkpoint in Houton, Texas last fall.

That's right - a loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol stuffed in a computer bag got all the way through security, even though the computer bag that held it got x-rayed. TSA agents at the checkpoint never noticed the pistol.

"It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun," Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif told ABC News. "How can you miss it? You cannot miss it."

Seif noticed the pistol still in the computer bag when he arrived at his hotel.

According to the report, incidents such as this are not all that uncommon.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 federal agencies have conducted random tests to determine just what can and cannot get through airport security. ABC News reported:

According to one report, undercover TSA agents testing security at a Newark airport terminal on one day in 2006 found that TSA screeners failed to detect concealed bombs and guns 20 out of 22 times. A 2007 government audit leaked to USA Today revealed that undercover agents were successful slipping simulated explosives and bomb parts through Los Angeles's LAX airport in 50 out of 70 attempts, and at Chicago's O'Hare airport agents made 75 attempts and succeeded in getting through undetected 45 times.


(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airport; banglist; loadedgun; security; tsa; tsapervs
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last
What I want to know it this - why is this guy allowed to carry a gun anywhere near an airport in the first place?
1 posted on 12/20/2010 6:42:59 AM PST by FredJake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: FredJake

“...TSA administrator John Pistole..”

How did someone with a name like that get a job with TSA?


2 posted on 12/20/2010 6:45:54 AM PST by Mobties (Let the markets work! Reduce the government footprint!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredJake

Open carry?


3 posted on 12/20/2010 6:49:47 AM PST by null and void (We are now in day 697 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredJake
What I want to know it this - why is this guy allowed to carry a gun anywhere near an airport in the first place?

Try for a repeal, but I'll fight you over it.

4 posted on 12/20/2010 6:50:20 AM PST by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredJake

If it’s really impossible to miss, maybe it really wasn’t there in the first place? No one saw it except him, and that was after he got to his room and opened his bag. Sounds fishy to me.


5 posted on 12/20/2010 6:51:41 AM PST by stuartcr (When politicians politicize issues, aren't they just doing their job?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredJake

I want to know how the TSA found out he had a gun.

If I were to do this accidentally I’m not telling anyone. I’m quite certain they’d charge me with something because of their embarrassment.


6 posted on 12/20/2010 6:51:59 AM PST by Malsua
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

It’s no fun for them to “pat down” a computer case...........


7 posted on 12/20/2010 6:52:28 AM PST by Boonie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Mobties

Former deputy director of the FBI.

And libtards have no sense of irony.


8 posted on 12/20/2010 6:56:05 AM PST by jazminerose (o)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Malsua
I want to know how the TSA found out he had a gun.

Clearly, this blockhead decided to blab this to ABC News and who ever else would listen (like his buddies back at the Mosque). Why he couldn't just shut-up and enjoy the satisfaction of enjoying his 2nd Amendment right at his destination despite the blatantly unconstitutional acts of the Fe'ral government is beyond me.

It would not surprise me in the least if he got charged with a felony carrying the gun into a restricted area as a reward for voluntarily surrendering his 5th Amendment right to the embarrassment of the idiots who make up TSA.

9 posted on 12/20/2010 7:00:34 AM PST by The Theophilus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Malsua

Maybe he’s one of those people that doesn’t like TSA, and he just made it all up? I would think if he were to get prosecuted for this, all he would have to do is say he made it up, then he wouldn’t get in trouble. No one saw him open his suitcase from what I read.


10 posted on 12/20/2010 7:05:55 AM PST by stuartcr (When politicians politicize issues, aren't they just doing their job?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: FredJake

The long term goal for the TSA is to provide yet another union money stream into the DNC.

If they happen to stumble onto something illegal, well, bonus.

But, when they fail, that failure will be the excuse to enact more draconian hoops for people to jump through.


11 posted on 12/20/2010 7:05:58 AM PST by tje
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr

I tend to lean toward that scenario.


12 posted on 12/20/2010 7:06:56 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr
If it’s really impossible to miss,

Apparently it is possible to miss. There have been numerable studies on this phenomena and it boils down to the way the brain is wired. We see what we are conditioned to see, and block out the noise. Most TSA agents behind the x-ray scanner screen will never see a prohibited item pass through despite the thousands of hours watching hundreds of thousands pieces of luggage pass through, so when it does appear for that unlucky agent, he/she is unlikely to register seeing it.

13 posted on 12/20/2010 7:09:00 AM PST by The Theophilus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: FredJake

“...why is this guy allowed to carry a gun anywhere near an airport in the first place?”
-
Pardon me?
Shirley, you jest?


14 posted on 12/20/2010 7:14:02 AM PST by Repeal The 17th
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Theophilus

Why do you say most TSA agents will never see a prohibited item?

I fly a lot, and it’s quite common to see people taken aside and have their bags opened.


15 posted on 12/20/2010 7:16:37 AM PST by stuartcr (When politicians politicize issues, aren't they just doing their job?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: FredJake
“What I want to know it this - why is this guy allowed to carry a gun anywhere near an airport in the first place?”

Because of profiling. please note this guy is Iranian and probably Muslim. Therefor does not fit the profile of groups that need to be ‘super’screened. You know, Amish, Grandmothers, Vets in wheel chairs, Armed troops, Super models and the like.

16 posted on 12/20/2010 7:20:04 AM PST by Tupelo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredJake
I was surprised when I got a 4” pocket knife in my purse through security at the Houston airport and then returning at the Las Vegas airport. It was not intentional and it disturbed me a little that they missed it.
17 posted on 12/20/2010 7:20:41 AM PST by Ditter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FredJake

May be a round in the pipe but the mag looks empty.


18 posted on 12/20/2010 7:26:57 AM PST by sasquatch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: stuartcr; mylife
Sounds fishy to me.

I own a Glock 26 aka a "Baby" Glock. I have never, ever heard it refered to as "snub nose". To the best of my knowledge "snub nose" is a designation of revolvers, a totally different flavor than a Glock pistol. I'm not an expert, but fishey? You betcha'.
19 posted on 12/20/2010 7:36:13 AM PST by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats." - Jubal Harshaw [Robert A. Heinlein])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Mobties
How did someone with a name like that [Pistole] get a job with TSA?

I am reminded of the late Judge Lawrence F. Feloney, of the East Cambridge District Court.

20 posted on 12/20/2010 7:38:03 AM PST by cynwoody
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-36 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson