TSA's gun policy: Confiscate it, Instagram it

http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/09/technology/social/tsa-instagram/index.html

by grizzy • 13 years ago

36 62 13 years ago

money.cnn.com

Zikes• 13 years ago

This smells like a desperate attempt by the TSA to justify their own existence.

Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. Knives especially are commonly carried and can easily be forgotten about.

jlgreco9• 13 years ago

Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them.

Exactly. If these were instances of the TSA actually protecting us then "passengers who try to go through security with a firearm usually get a citation and can face a fine" would not be the case.

Not unless our plan is fining and citing terrorists out of existence.

caseysoftware• 13 years ago

Personally, I see this as an attempt to add humor and levity to a repeated and horrible violation of our rights and person.

"Hey, check out this gun! It has pink glitter! Aren't you glad we confiscated it!?"

DanBC6• 13 years ago

Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them.

TSA themselves have been saying that, once a week, every week, for some time now.

(http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review)

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

KeliNorth• 13 years ago

It's also in very bad taste. Even if things were being brought on purposefully... it just feels wrong to have authorities sort-of bragging about catching law violators.

It feels immature. Law enforcement is supposed to be serious. This kind of thing should only really be a number in a report, not a picture with a comment trying to be funny. It should be objective, neither heavy-handed or lackadaisical.

schrodingersCat2• 13 years ago

Those sepia toned filters might actually make me rethink my opinion of the TSA. They should get plaid flannel uniforms and change their motto to "We were groping old ladies before it was cool"

SubZero• 13 years ago

While it is kind of a sad PR stunt from someone with a 14 year old hipster child at home, it is kind of cool if you look for the ways people try to smuggle goods and weapons onto flights.

qwerty_asdf2• 13 years ago

Except for all the horrible jpeg compression artifacts.

...or is that considered "art" lately?

IanDrake• 13 years ago

I wonder how many TSA empoyees it takes to run an Instagram account.

All kidding aside, I wonder what mega IT company won the bid to run the Instagram account.

schrodingersCat2• 13 years ago

It being run a program called "Optical Grating". Its a low cost alternative to "PRISM"

messick• 13 years ago

Facebook. I heard they paid 1 billion USD for the privilege.

DanBC6• 13 years ago

The headline is a bit odd. The TSA blog gives clear and simple instructions on how to take your weapons onto a plane. (Not loaded, not in your hand luggage.)

Some people have said (on HN as well as other places) that the TSA have never stopped weapons getting on board a plane and if they had they would have heavily publicised it. In fact, they stop about 20 to 30 guns each week from getting on board a plane. Those guns and knives are posted to their blog.

Perhaps posting images on Instagram will let more people know that the TSA manage to stop some weapons (although I don't care about the guns they stop, I care about the gun they don't stop and which is then used to harm someone) and to help remind people to put guns into checked baggage instead?

(http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review)

Note that I'm not defending particularly defending TSA here.

nthj4• 13 years ago

to help remind people to put guns into checked baggage instead

I have to wonder how many of the firearms they stop are just regular law-abiding concealed handgun license bearers who, in their rush to get to the airport, forgot that they keep a loaded firearm in their purse, briefcase, or backpack. Since the penalty is a $7,500 fine and not 20 years in jail, I have to presume this scenario is far more common "malicious guy planned to hijack plane."

This would be a very easy statistic to publish, too (only 10% of the people we stopped were even licensed to carry a handgun!), but since I haven't seen that statistic advertised, I would presume they find most of the stopped citizens to be guilty only of carelessness.

freehunter5• 13 years ago

To be fair, they're not regular law-abiding citizens if they're bringing a loaded gun into an airport and attempting to get on a plane with it.

As much as I would love to see the TSA disappear tomorrow, some might argue that carelessness should be punished more often than it actually is...

jlgreco9• 13 years ago

(only 10% of the people we stopped were even licensed to carry a handgun!)

That would only be a meaningful statement in some states.

markbao2• 13 years ago

I feel like I am the only person on this thread that thinks the scenario that someone just happened to "damn, went to the airport and forgot that I had a gun in my bag while going through airport security" is pretty far-fetched.

A pocketknife from a fishing trip? Understandable. Being forgetful about having a gun in your bag? While going through airport security to get on an airplane? Not so much.

doktrin2• 13 years ago

I have to wonder how many of the firearms they stop are just regular law-abiding concealed handgun license bearers who, in their rush to get to the airport, forgot that they keep a loaded firearm in their purse, briefcase, or backpack.

I'm sure this accounts for the majority of weapon seizures, but this doesn't make them invalid. I would not be comfortable with improperly stored loaded weapons bouncing around an overhead storage bin.

DanBC6• 13 years ago

This would be a very easy statistic to publish, too (only 10% of the people we stopped were even licensed to carry a handgun!)

As I understand it TSA only do the finding of the guns and it's local law enforcement who does the rest. So TSA have no idea about who's allowed to carry the weapon or not.

I agree that these are just careless or forgetful people (or perhaps people making a point about their right to etc etc) and not terrorists.

This would be a very easy statistic to publish, too (only 10% of the people we stopped were even licensed to carry a handgun!), but since I haven't seen that statistic advertised, I would presume they find most of the stopped citizens to be guilty only of carelessness.

I really hope that careless people are not being fined, or if they are it's only small. I also really hope that someone, somewhere, with a solid stats background, is collecting and studying the numbers and giving advice to law makers. Because spending all that time and money on something that's pointless would be very very frustrating. I want to know what the future-people will say about it. What will the 2063 tenth-graders write about it?

walshemj• 13 years ago

Sorry if you own a weapon it behooves you to know where it is at all times - people that dumb should have their license revoked.

jacquesm• 13 years ago

If you forget you're carrying a loaded firearm you shouldn't be carrying one in the first place. Such responsibility should not be dealt with lightly, if you're not aware that you have it you are also not aware when you lose it.

jlgreco9• 13 years ago

Some people have said (on HN as well as other places) that the TSA have never stopped weapons getting on board a plane and if they had they would have heavily publicised it

I believe the standard claim is that they have never discovered and apprehended a terrorist, preventing an attack. Everybody knows they steal shit from people who, although perhaps stupid, are not terrorists.

DanBC6• 13 years ago

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3810785)

darkarmani• 13 years ago

So are they inadvertently showing that they only need x-ray machines and metal detectors and don't have to feel us up anymore?

asperous2• 13 years ago

This feels kinda wrong, but I have to keep in mind that these people chose to give up these items.

From the TSA Blog (I cannot confirm if true)

When prohibited items come through the checkpoint, passengers are given options:

1) Take the item to the ticket counter and check it in your baggage or a box provided by the airport.

2) Many airports have a US Postal Service or other shipping services area where boxes, stamps and envelopes can be bought so you can ship your items home.

3) If there is somebody seeing you off, you can hand the prohibited item to them.

4) If your car is parked outside, you can take the item to your car.

bwhite• 13 years ago

In many places, none of these suggestions would help someone who realizes he is carrying a handgun.

1) There are guidelines for how the firearm must be shipped; simply sliding it into your checked baggage will not work.

2) Handguns are generally prohibited from being mailed via the USPS.

3) The person seeing you off may not be properly licensed to transport the handgun.

4) Storing a valuable object in a vehicle which is in long-term parking sounds like a bad idea. Municipalities which have strict theft-reporting requirements do not have exceptions for "I was out of town and didn't know that my car had been burgled."

asperous2• 13 years ago

1 & 2 are true for handguns (as checked luggage, they have to be in a hardsided locked case for example.)

but 3 & 4 I think would practically be the best route, despite some risks.

outworlder• 13 years ago

Aren't you already inside the security checkpoint when the carry on is checked for? How can one leave items at the car by then?

korethr• 13 years ago

In every airport I've been through, passengers and carry on baggage are checked before the you get past the checkpoint. Yes, the screening areas are usually roped off, but that's it. It's not terribly difficult for a TSA agent to have you step out of line and then lift a rope to allow you to exit the screening area. Yes, having to go back out to one's car and then return to the end of the line sucks, but it's probably better than having your stuff confiscated or being carried away in handcuffs.

dmazin• 13 years ago

One of the pictures has a clear visual date stamp with a "/90." Maybe this means nothing.

But I wonder if they are misleadingly posting these as if they were just discovered, rather than over what appears to be at least 23 years.

nateabele• 13 years ago

One of the pictures has a clear visual date stamp with a "/90."

It's part of the vintage look.

DanBC6• 13 years ago

The image is also on this page but without the date stamp. (http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/06/tsa-week-in-review-tsa-week-in-r...)

Here's the URL. (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SysR15uPqBM/Uc4NPpBKBMI/AAAAAAAADH...)

Maybe they took it off for the blog post, or maybe Instagram put it on because 1990 is, uh, retro?

mjschultz• 13 years ago

Or you're reading it upside-down, making it "06/" which would mean it was taken in June (much less surprising since it is now early July).

mindcrime• 13 years ago

So our tax dollars are not only paying the TSA's jack-booted thugs to harass us at the airport, but they're also paying for TSA dorks to sit around and post on Instagram? Jeeeeebusssssss....

And people wonder why I'm such a government-hating Libertarian. sigh

ChuckMcM• 13 years ago

I note that every single one of them caught by running your bag under the x-ray and/or a metal detector. The TSA provides no evidence that grabbing your nutsack or fondling your wife's breasts has found any weapon or threat that a simple bag x-ray and a walk through metal detector wouldn't find.

jmspring• 13 years ago

It is worth pointing out, a trick a number of photographer friends use when having to check their photo gear is to include a flare gun (or was it a starter pistol) in the case and note that there is a firearm. It increases the scrutiny and tracking of the bag.

Lifehacker had an article on it --

http://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuable...

TSA's gun policy: Confiscate it, Instagram it

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