Tag Archives: TSA

Only a Matter of Time Before Firearms Disaster On a Plane

Leave a reply

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

You’ll be thrilled to know that the Transportation Security Administration has released its first-half 2023 firearm interception numbers. https://tinyurl.com/vtnnazfd You will not be surprised, I suspect, to learn that the 3,251 total interceptions, an average of 18 firearms per day (of which more than 92 percent were loaded) was a 6.5 percent increase from the first half of 2022 (3,053 interceptions; 86 percent loaded). TSA is expecting a year-end increase over last year’s record of 6,542.

Granted that 3,251 is a miniscule percentage of the total domestic passenger enplanements during the first half of 2023 (396,154,000), the fact remains that the discharge of a pistol in a pressurized confines of a cruising airplane could have catastrophic consequences for everyone on board and possibly many more on the ground. So far, we’ve been fortunate that the security systems at airports, and the people who staff them, have detected so many weapons before they were taken on board an aircraft. Whether the 3,251 represents all such weapons, however, we can only hope, but we can’t be sure.

In fact, there is a recent report of an on-duty flight attendant who was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport trying to take a loaded pistol onto a plane. https://tinyurl.com/3fxscr3k The weapon in this case was a loaded .38 Ruger semiautomatic handgun. It was in her purse. With five rounds in the magazine.

The article does not specify which of the many Ruger semiautomatic handguns she carried, but assuming it was among the less expensive, it weighed just under 10 oz with a barrel length of less than 3 inches. The online ads describe it as “highly concealable.” Great. Holds 6 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber. (In this instance no round was in the chamber, a minor inconvenience if quick shooting were at hand).

Further,

The arrest comes just two weeks after an airport concession worker was stopped trying to take a loaded handgun into the secure airside area of the airport. The worker claimed he forgot the gun was in his bag.

“I forgot I had the gun in my … purse, briefcase, pocket” is the standard excuse offered when TSA detects these items which, in the context of an aircraft in flight, could easily become a “weapon of mass destruction.”

The article says the flight attendant faces firearms charges under Pennsylvania law and “a potential federal financial penalty” related to trying to take a gun through a TSA checkpoint.

And there lies the issue: a “potential financial penalty.” And in many states, no charges would lie under local gun laws because they basically don’t have any.

When passengers bring firearms to the TSA security checkpoint, TSOs contact local law enforcement to check the contents of the carry-on bag, safely unload and take possession of the firearm and process the passenger in accordance with local laws on firearms. TSA will impose a civil penalty up to $14,950, eliminate TSA PreCheck eligibility for five years and may require enhanced screening.

Some passengers will be arrested or cited, depending on local laws on firearms.

Not good enough. Some, but not all?  Why not all?

Then, there’s this:

Aircrew can often skip most security screening at US airports as part of the ‘Known Crewmember’ initiative ….

The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) issued an urgent circular earlier this year warning crew members not to break KCM rules and to be particularly mindful of not accidentally trying [??] to take a firearm through the security checkpoint.

In some cases, the union warned that flight attendants had managed to leave the United States on international trips with a firearm in their luggage only for it to then be discovered as they went to return to the US resulting in hefty fines and even imprisonment.

According to another report, the flight attendant caught in PHL lives in Arizona. https://tinyurl.com/ms36hpmkOne wonders how the pistol came to be with her in PHL if it wasn’t flown there from Arizona. That article notes: “It’s possible that the flight attendant may lose her job here, but generally the consequences for being caught with a gun at a security checkpoint are quite minimal (at least compared to what they’d be in other countries).

A recent report in CNN https://tinyurl.com/3y6tmx4e notes that a June 20023 IATA report shows that “there was one unruly incident reported for every 568 flights in 2022, up from one per 835 flights in 2021.”

Thus, we have reports of deranged passengers fighting with other passengers and crews on in-flight aircraft coming in weekly combined with a multitude of pistols, the vast majority being loaded, being stopped almost literally at the boarding door (and apparently some getting through) – the perfect recipe for an in-flight catastrophe.

We know from statistical principles that even though the chances of an event may be very small, such low-probability events do happen. What will we say when an in-flight disaster brought on by a loaded pistol in-flight brings down an aircraft?

Here’s what: “Oh my, we will undertake a thorough examination of our security protocols because, you know, your safety is our top priority, and we take it very seriously.” That, by the way, is probably the most-repeated and least meaningful cliché in the English language. It is standard public relations formula for after-the-fact, but readily foreseeable, disaster events.

Two days ago, the local news outlet, Patch, reported that a VA Man Blames Wife For Loaded Gun In Carry-On Bag At Reagan National; the man

told officials that she packed his carry-on bag and did not know that he already had his loaded gun inside,” TSA said.

What the article does not discuss is why the gun was already in the man’s carry-on bag. Had he succeeded in taking it on another flight previously and just left in the bag for his next flight when his unsuspecting wife dutifully packed his bag for him?

In a classic example of understatement, TSA’s security director for National Airport was quoted,

It is disappointing to continue to see travelers carrying their loaded guns to our security checkpoints.

Disappointing, yes, indeed. But, more accurately,

There is no reasonable excuse for not knowing you are carrying an unsecured, loaded firearm in your bag. It presents a danger to everyone around you.

Here are the reported firearms captures at National Airport alone:

The current one is the sixth capture in the last three weeks.

What does this tell you? Answer: the current approach is not working and the risk to passengers on planes and people on the ground is growing.

The solution, I suggest, while imperfect, is to have an absolute policy of strictest law enforcement against every person caught with firearms in their carry-on luggage. Every one of them should be prosecuted under federal law and visited with the maximum penalty. Then, maybe, just maybe, gun owners would begin to take the rules seriously.

We can, of course, expect Second Amendment challenges to such an approach. The “originalist” argument will be that that when the Constitution was adopted there was no general prohibition against carrying firearms on planes, therefore, we cannot enforce one now. I don’t have to explain how ludicrous that argument is, so I won’t bother.

If There Were No TSA — Addendum

2 Replies

Since posting the TSA data on gun recoveries at airports, I continued to look for evidence that TSA systematically and aggressively addresses the guns-in-carryon-bags issue with prosecutions of offenders. I could find no such evidence on TSA’s website or in news stories about various incidents at airports, including those involving loaded and chambered weapons. TSA’s approach appears to be to accept the excuse that “I forgot the gun was in my bag” or “my husband must have put it in there without telling me.” They do confiscate weapons, though not in all cases, but do not seem interested in actually imposing legally authorized punishments. TSA instead continues, thorough its blog posts and media releases to remind travelers about the rules governing transport of guns on aircraft. See, for example, https://bit.ly/2qUYVNw. Meanwhile, finding such weapons at the checkpoints leads to delays of other passengers while the incident is resolved.

This is a curious policy, at best, given that the Customs agents at airports appear to have a much less lenient approach to people “forgetting to declare” things like food items. Indeed, in one recent case, a woman has been fined $500 for failing to declare an apple provided by Delta Air Lines and contained in a plastic package bearing Delta’s logo. She placed the apple in her carryon while on the aircraft, planning to eat it on the next domestic leg of her flight home. Views may and do differ about whether this type of incident warrants a huge fine and possible loss of Global Entry status, but the real issue, in my view, is the disparity in practice between TSA and Customs & Border Patrol, in light of the potential risks.

Moreover, it is apparently the case that enforcement of the carryon restrictions ultimately depends on state or local law governing the possession of firearms. See, for example, https://bit.ly/2HV4Da7 and https://on-ajc.com/2FavsUZ. I don’t understand why this would be true given that the offenses occur in federally controlled airport zones and violate federal regulations, which, under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, control over conflicting state/local laws. There are apparently some exceptions, like New York, but, of course, the pro-gun crowd are pretty unhappy about anything that they think smacks of restricting their “rights.” See https://fxn.ws/2usKvZI.

I conclude more or less where these posts began. The other day a passenger who had allegedly touched a female passenger inappropriately refused to deplane peacefully when ordered to do so and the police had to use a stun gun on him multiple times to subdue him. https://bit.ly/2HrJUcQ. Imagine how this might have gone down if this passenger had possessed a loaded pistol in his carryon bag.

If There Were No TSA …

2 Replies

Everyone seems to have a “security checkpoint story,” either something they experienced or an incident they observed. This has led to calls for the abolition of

the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), privitization of the airport security process and other “solutions” to preventing the use of an aircraft as a terrorist weapon, all of which approaches are intended to reduce the inconvenience and, occasionally, humiliation that occurs, especially when one is running late for a flight.

The problem may be getting worse. TSA announced a few weeks ago that it had finished rolling out enhanced screening of carry-on bags at airports across the country. https://bit.ly/2H3HMvR. The new process, according to TSA, requires travelers to:

place all personal electronics larger than a cell phone in bins for X-ray screening in standard lanes. In addition … TSA officers may instruct travelers to separate other items from carry-on bags such as foods, powders, and any materials that can clutter bags and obstruct clear images on the X-ray machine. Travelers are encouraged to organize their carry-on bags and keep them uncluttered to ease the screening process and keep the lines moving.

Somewhat curiously, I haven’t heard much about the new system causing problems, despite its having been started last summer. Perhaps, contrary to the teachings of experience, air travelers are indeed “organiz[ing] their carry-on bags and keep[ing] them uncluttered to ease the screening process and keep the lines moving,” as TSA has asked.

The TSA Administrator said that “these enhanced screening measures enable TSA officers to better screen for threats to passengers and aircrew while maintaining efficiency at checkpoints throughout the U.S….Our security efforts remain focused on always staying ahead of those trying to do us harm and ensuring travelers get to their destination safely.”

Well, they better had, because, as a result of the bizarre gun culture that pervades  American society, the greatest danger appears to come, not from terrorists, but from ordinary air travelers packing heat, ready to defend themselves and others from any threat, real or imagined. I say this because it is reliably reported that in just the first week of April, TSA discovered 64 firearms in carry-on bags at airports around the United States. Of those weapons, 52, or 81 percent, were loaded and 13, or 20 percent, had a round in the firing chamber.

This, despite the fact that TSA may assess civil penalties of up to $13,066 per violation per person for carrying prohibited items on an aircraft. https://americansecuritytoday.com/tsa-finds-63-firearms-carry-bags-last-week-learn-videos/ This, despite the fact that incidents of “out of control” passengers seem to be on the increase.

Were it not for the vigilant screening efforts carried out by TSA, and assuming the first week of April was typical, there is a chance that someone on your flight will be armed with a pistol with live rounds in the chamber, ready to shoot at … what? A provocation by another passenger? A rude flight attendant? At altitude, in a pressurized cabin.

Think this is  overstatement? In fact, the year 2017 set a record for weapons discoveries; according to TSA records:

  • 5 million (771,556,886) passengers traveled through 440 federalized airports in 2017, a rate of more than 2 million a day;
  • A record setting 3,957, firearms were discovered in carry-on bags, an average rate of 76.1 firearms per week, or . 10.8 firearms per day;
  • 3,324 (84 percent) of the total firearms discovered were loaded; and 1,378 (34.8 percent) of the total had a round chambered;
  • The most firearms discovered in one-month – 31 – were in August at the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), but in total, firearms were intercepted at 239 airports.
  • The 2017 total represents a 16.7 percent increase in firearm discoveries over2016’s totalof 3,391.

https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2018/01/29/tsa-year-review-record-amount-firearms-discovered-2017

There’s more. The 2017 cache of intercepted weapons went well beyond mere pistols. A sample of other items includes:

  • A checked bag with an ammunition box with three live ground burst simulators, two live M83 smoke grenades, and one inert practice grenade — Palm Springs International Airport (PSP).
  • A live flashbang grenade in a carry-on bag — San Diego International Airport (SAN).
  • A live smoke grenade — Raleigh–Durham International Airport (RDU).
  • A one-pound bottle of gun powder in a checked bag at the Ketchikan International Airport (KTN).
  • Five one-pound bottles of gun powder in a checked bag — Boise Airport (BOI).
  • A ten-ounce container of gun powder in a checked bag — Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC).

This, my fellow Americans, is one small part of the regime we have allowed to develop in our country. So, next time you are tempted to complain about the security process at the airport, try to remember what you have read here. I don’t like going through security any more than anyone else, but without it, we’d all probably be killed by some “patriot” with a Glock 9mm in his briefcase.