TSA Misses Gun and Rounds – Twice

Posted in Coverage

According to The China Post, the TSA missed a .22 calibre pistol, magazine and 7 rounds on two occasions – at Charlotte’s international airport and JFK in New York.

A family apparently traveled from Charlotte, through JFK and Osaka airports, to Taiwan, all with the gun in their luggage, all without it being detected. It was only found on departure from Taiwan. (Now the mom and a 14-year-old daughter are caged by local police.)

The TSA proudly shows off pictures of all the scary things they confiscate from people at their checkpoints. But, like this firearm, there is no evidence of any intention to use it to hurt or scare anyone. This is the heart of the TSA strategy: they’re going to control all the dangerous little items that could possibly be used to hurt people, starting with nail clippers.

But they can’t even do that.

Taking some inspiration, but not much more, from the Israelis, it would be wise to focus more on questioning and behavior observation for traveler security. The TSA needs to be abolished so that traveler security can decentralize. Only through the competition of dozens of airports, airlines, security industry players and even travelers ourselves can we arrive at the best solutions for our own travel security.

The TSA is a huge monolithic apparatus. And the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

By the way, this is not the first time the TSA has let a gun get through.

Source: The China Post

Thanks to our friend and reader George E. for sharing this tip.

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