People don’t forget they have a firearm on them but they may forget that the courthouse, airport, or whatever is a no carry zone.
Well, only about 4 thousand last year were confiscated by the TSA. But that’s the most obvious and outrageous place to forget about it. Also the only place it’s recorded in any way.
And I’m aware of the “pat reflex”. People do it with their wallets and other valuables too. It’s not impervious to human forgetfulness or routine. Do plain clothes police detectives pat their gun every so often?
Nobody is allowed to carry a gun on the plane. My point is that the TSA agents cannot know that you (or I) are not a terrorist, so they have to give you and me a thorough screening. They know that Barbour and Rockefeller are not terrorists. Giving them more than a waive through is a waste of time that could be used to detect terrorists.
And just how many terrorists have they caught?
Total Fail: TSA Doesn’t Stop 95 Percent of Potential Terror Attacks in Tests
Not true. Federal Air Marshals can be armed.
Man, the worst I’ve done is forget that my 1.5" swiss army knife was in my pocket when I went to the county courthouse to renew something. The guy looked at it and told me to go put it in my car.
Of course, I did carry a firearm into a county courthouse for just over a year, when I worked armored (Loomis, picking up money from the court service counter and from the jail property room in the basement). But that was different. Except the time one of the county deputies tried to stop me and got called off by her superiors. (He said “No, no, we WANT them to pick up our money. Let him through.”)
I happen to believe that most of those people are lying about having forgot. I base that only on opinion. They possibly are not aware how easy and legal it is to transport a firearm in checked baggage. They may think they are smart enough to get on with it, which is quite obnoxious.
Yep. During the last 4 years of my first career I was in the bureau and noticed myself (and others) doing it. It becomes a part of the second nature of always being armed yet always being aware of it. Now that I’m back in uniform I still do it with my weapon on a duty belt. It just happens.
I understand your point, but the TSA is not there only to stop terrorists - they are also there to stop people from bringing guns onto planes. IYSWIM.
I am as white as the driven snow, I was wearing a suit and tie, and I was still subjected to a full search, including a frisk, when I was traveling to NYC. The TSA has to be politically correct.
Regards,
Shodan
OK, let’s go down the checklist before the attack gets started… You guys all have your VIP fake IDs to insure you are not troubled by security? Good…
They know just as much that I am not a terrorist as they know that this other guy is not a terrorist. Neither of us has a history of terrorism. It’s not like being famous makes you less likely to terrorize.
And equality under the law is a fundamental principle of our system. If you do not treat everyone the same, then you are saying the law doesn’t apply equally to him as it does to everyone else.
Oh, and just a warning to everyone else: Saying that it’s impossible for you to make a particular mistake only makes it more likely to make that mistake. Every single person who has forgotten they carried a gun or forgotten their kid in a car could have told you the day before they would not have done it.
Yeah, well when you misjudge how much you’ve had to drink and get behind the wheel, that a ‘mistake’ too. And whether you hurt someone or not today, you still get charged and deal with the consequences. You know why? Because your little ‘mistake’ has potentially deadly consequences for other innocent people.
Sorry, but loaded gun in an airport/on a plane, should fall into the same category in my opinion. He should be charged, and have to pay the fine, have the criminal record etc. Should have been removed from the flight and should have had to appear before a judge to explain himself. Just like a black or brown person would surely have to do.
But when somebody forgets their kid in a car there are no political movements to prevent people from having kids, or cars, or being allowed to transport a kid in a car. Not true when someone “forgets” they had a gun.
Barbour should get his ass handed to him, pay a steep, steep fine, and maybe sit on his ass a bit. But in this particular situation he should not lose his right to own a firearm like some on these boards would mandate. The situation doesn’t rise to that level.
That depends – would Jose Mendez or Abdul Hakeem in the same situation lose the right to own a firearm? If so, the same should apply to Haley Barbour.
In addition to the principle of basic justice mentioned by others on this thread, there’s an obvious pragmatic reason for insisting on the same rules for the high and mighty – if the high and mighty get a free pass, they won’t bother to seriously consider the possibility that maybe the rules are too draconian.
I don’t think that he should lose his right to own a firearm at all, and I don’t think he should lose the right to carry it in public, permanently.
But, just as if you are doing something stupid or negligent with your car, and they take away your license until you complete some driving classes, I think you should at least lose your CCW and have to take the training classes again to get it back.
If you are negligent in this aspect of gun ownership, what other aspects of gun ownership do you need a refresher on? Well, lets go over them to make sure they’re all covered.
There’s an assumption being made that minorities in the same situation would have been arrested / charged. I don’t think that’s true.
I could go for that. With escalating suspension and fine for repeat offenses, as happens with moving violations.
Seems it would be viable only in those states that do have a permitting process, though.
Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. The point is that the penalties need to be the same at all levels for several reasons (e.g. the one I pointed out, which is that it’s too easy for the powerful to impose excessive penalties if they themselves do not fear being subjected to them).
Many people need a car to make a legal living and prosper in today’s society; very, very few people need a gun to do the same.
The bolded part is a strawman that you should be embarrassed to have posted. It casts aspersion on unnamed people for something that no one has done. It’s rude and unsupported by facts. And it unnecessarily draws a line in the sand between people who actually agree with you, like me.
Because your first sentence in that paragraph was right on, but now you look like a guy who’s so pro-gun that he can’t be reasonably talked to about any issues that involve guns.
That’s not strictly true. The TSA has to prioritize its time like anyone else, and the odds are better than pretty good that a very well-known political heavyweight has a lot to lose by becoming involved in a terrorist plot. One of the main recruiting tools of Islamic extremists is the powerlessness of the recruited, something that clearly doesn’t apply to this guy.
Having said the above, I agree that he should be treated no differently than anyone else as far as consequences. He screwed up, and he shouldn’t get a pass any more than anyone else should.
Missed the edit window. I would think that, at the very least, SOP would include confiscation of the gun.
Gun-grabbers!!!
