Guns Confiscated at the Airport Increasing

The New York Times

In fact, the T.S.A. says the number of guns found at airport security checkpoints has been steadily rising for the last couple of years. Through Friday, 1,105 guns have been found this year, a pace that is higher than last year’s. In 2011, the total was 1,320, up from 1,123 in 2010, the agency says. 

Security experts attribute the increase to two factors: a rise in gun sales and the sharp growth of so-called right-to-carry laws across the country that significantly relax regulations on carrying guns in many areas of public life, from colleges to hospitals. 

Invariably, according to the T.S.A., travelers at airports with guns in their carry-on bags say they simply forgot they had them. “It’s almost always inadvertent rather than intentional,” said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the agency.

Like other professionals in security, law enforcement and firearms safety, Mr. Castelveter was baffled by how anyone could forget that they were carrying a gun. “I’m a Vietnam vet, and when I went through training I was taught that my gun was my best friend — and God forbid you should ever lose sight of that fact. I would never, ever not know that I have a gun in my bag.”

The usefulness of One Strike You're Out cannot be overestimated. The same people who "forget" they have a gun in their possession when the arrive at the airport are the same ones who are capable of forgetting there's a round in the chamber when they clean their gun or forget to store the gun properly when its not on their person.

These people are dangerous and should be disarmed.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Rhode Island Airport TSA Discover Gun Parts in Stuffed Animals - Amazingly No Charges Filed

CNN reports

Another Gun Nut Violates the Carry Laws

Did this woman really have a need to carry, or is she another gun fetishist?

Once again we have those who want their guns ignoring the rules when they think they can get away with it. So long as they get their way, the laws and rules be damned.

That this woman must have known she was in the wrong is evident by her disappearance. She could have attempted to resolve the problem, but she didn't.

Guns, grenades, C4 explosives? No. These don't belong in the cabins of our airlines.  I don't believe anyone needs to be transporting either a live grenade or C4 plastic explosives on a commercial flight, and I seriously question anyone legitimately having these items AT ALL.

Not even in Texas, which is a state that sometimes has an air of unreality about it.

Confiscating a cupcake on the other hand? You've got to be kidding.

From the Huffington Post:

American Airlines Passenger Arrested With Gun On Plane

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Authorities say that a 65-year-old woman was taken into custody Wednesday after carrying a gun on to an American Airlines plane at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

An airline spokesman said Wednesday that the plane was headed for the runway when it returned to the gate and was met by airport police.

Security screeners detected a handgun in the woman's carry-on bag, but she "picked up the bag and left the checkpoint before the screening process was over," said Greg Soule, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which operates the checkpoints.

Soule said he didn't know if the gun, a .38-caliber revolver, was loaded. He said that when TSA screeners spot a gun in a bag, they are supposed to seize the bag and notify police.

It was not clear how authorities tracked down the woman's flight. It was about an hour and 40 minutes later that she was taken into custody by DFW Airport police, Soule said.

Airport officials declined to talk about the incident but issued a brief written statement saying that the woman would be charged with carrying a gun into a place where weapons are prohibited, a third-degree felony in Texas and punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

People who bring a gun to an airport checkpoint are subject to civil penalties. It's up to local law enforcement agencies to decide whether to lodge criminal charges, according to the TSA.

American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said the woman was removed from Flight 2385, scheduled to fly to Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. The flight was delayed for just over an hour and other passengers were screened again before the plane took off, he said.

About 10 other flights were also delayed up to 25 minutes after the TSA closed DFW's Terminal D, Smith said. The terminal, one of five, is used for international flights and some domestic flights.

The incident comes amid heightened criticism of TSA.

A soldier arrested on Dec. 31 at the Midland, Texas, airport with C4 explosives in his bag said he probably carried the bomb material on a flight from North Carolina to Texas. Screeners delayed him after finding and confiscating a smoke grenade, but let him on that first flight.

In other cases, screeners have been overzealous. TSA Administrator John Pistole said in letters made public this week that screeners at New York's Kennedy Airport violated procedures this fall by asking 85- and 88-year-old women to show them medical devices concealed under their clothes. The women said they felt as if they had been strip-searched.

Screeners in Las Vegas were criticized this month for confiscating a traveler's frosted cupcake.