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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTSA: 894 guns seized at airports in first six months of 2013
http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/08/06/gun-seizures-up-at-raleigh-and-airports-across-the-us/2624311/The reason so many guns are being seized? Responsible, law-abiding gun owners are . . . not behaving responsibly.
Ed Nicely of Whispering Pines said he felt terrible when he went to the airport with a .22 caliber over-and-under derringer in his carry-on bag. The 55-year-old gun dealer said he got the weapon at a Charlotte gun show and put it in the bag, then forgot all about it until two months later when he packed that bag in the dark for a gun show in Las Vegas in January. The TSA screener found the gun at the airport.
hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)Yes, indeed.... If it weren't for all the unsecured guns finding their way into toddlers hands on a daily basis, teens stealing them and owners shooting "by accident"--as well as trying to take them on planes, I might get the impression that a whole hell of a lot of gun owners really weren't so "responsible".....
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Up to the local authorities on whether they get their gun back. Anecdotally, the story suggests most don't get the guns back.
The vast majority are legal gun owners who just forgot they had a loaded gun in their bag.
hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)I would think so
hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)seemed to pretty lethal on 9/11. And everybody went ape shit when the TSA wanted to allow very small knives again. Were they lying or were they right that they are lethal weapons?
A sharpened credit card can be just as lethal
hlthe2b
(101,730 posts)(or the sidewalk, as in the ridiculous race-baiting demonstration we just saw in Florida).
I find disdain for the ridiculous extremes in this argument. A hunting knife is clearly a lethal weapon. But go after the knitting needles and 2 inch pen knifes all you want. It is the element of surprise and group attack that allowed the boxcutters to prevail.
But don't let common sense get in your way.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)Security theater at its best. Common sense should be to allow these and concentrate on larger knives, guns and bombs.
Tell you a story, on my way back from Korea in the army after 9/11. My gift from the unit was confiscated because it had a small plastic sward mounted behind the glass on the plaque. Fine those are the rules. Get my first meal and they give us a really nice steel knife to cut our meat that came with our meals.
But don't let common sense get in your way.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)In North Carolina, violators can be charged with illegally carrying a concealed weapon, a misdemeanor punishable by 30 days of community service. But Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby said he has no problem with dropping charges if the gun was brought into the airport inadvertently.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)were also confiscated. Just check ebay. These knife owners are responsible also?
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)facts are just facts. Can you show me where I get this "talking point"? I would like to see the list please. Please just show me this list of "talking points"
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)that does not look like a list of talking points.
I still have not seen one yet, but it does seem like facts are a problem for some.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Say 20 years or so. I'm just curious if this has gotten worse. From the tone of the article that's what I'm gathering.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)It just boggles my mind that people can forget they have a loaded weapon on them.
Fun with stats:
The study found TSA seized 255 guns in Texas and 129 in Florida last year.
The country's busiest airport Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with 95.5 million passengers last year also had the highest number of guns seized: 97.
The lowest numbers of guns seized were at airports in states that heavily restrict concealed-weapon permits.
At New York City's two airports which handled 75 million passengers between them last year TSA reported seizing one gun at John F. Kennedy International Airport and three guns at LaGuardia Airport.
By comparison, at OIA, which handled 35.3 million passengers last year, TSA seized 40 guns.
Nationwide, 1,525 firearms were seized at airports last year. Of those, 85 percent were loaded and 26 percent were loaded and had a cartridge in the chamber ready to fire. The most frequently seized guns were .380-caliber, 9 mm and .38-caliber pistols. Those three types made up a little more than half of all guns confiscated, according to the Medill initiative.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)"It just boggles my mind that people can forget they have a loaded weapon on them."
but it also looks like there are millions of gun owners that fly and do not bring weapons.
The country's busiest airport Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with 95.5 million passengers last year also had the highest number of guns seized: 97.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)how many of the 75 million owned guns? How many CCL carriers? How many other types of weapons confiscated? 3 irresponsible gun owners, I agree.
tridim
(45,358 posts)Well because of all the "responsible" gun owners like Ed Nicely of Whispering Pines, who can't even remember putting a gun in his carry-on bag.
Ed Nicely's forgetfulness risks the lives of everyone in his vicinity. Oops, huh Ed?
hack89
(39,171 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)they always go off on there own, no body has to pull a trigger on these death machines.
How many of these guns did fire on there own?
tridim
(45,358 posts)Guns go off "accidentally" ALL THE TIME, sometimes resulting in deaths of innocent people. Ever read the news?
How many? Way too many, every fucking day.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)They get discharged either intentionally or negligently.
A true "accidental" discharge is super rare, and even more so with modern firearms. What most people and news reports call accidents are negligence.
tridim
(45,358 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)was right
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)and most of them somebody does pull the trigger. If they all just went off than the manufacturers would be sued for defective products. Show me where after investigation by an expert the weapon just went off on its own without being modified. I know of only one type of rifle with that problem that has been demonstrated. The 1911 with the series 70 safety had that possibility so it has been updated to a series 80 several years ago.
sarisataka
(18,220 posts)From a thread in GCRA where people are celebrating a gun owner shooting himself:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12623988#post4
So in one thread the guns don't fire by themselves but you are claiming they do ALL THE TIME. Who should I believe?
tridim
(45,358 posts)It's just a forgotten deadly weapon flopping around in a bag with other items that can easily discharge it, like a pen for instance. We already know gun nuts forget to unload their weapons all the time.
And bags never get stolen or misplaced at airports.
Nothing at all to worry about, eh hack?
hack89
(39,171 posts)modern handguns don't go off by accident - it takes a hand on the gun and a finger on the trigger.
I am not saying it is good idea - your point about potential theft is valid. But no one is going to get shot by a gun bumping around in a bag.
hack89
(39,171 posts)I am sure you have plenty - I cannot imagine you making unsubstantiated claims.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)tridim
(45,358 posts)About 44,700,000 results (0.43 seconds)
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/state-and-regional/illinois/hurt-after-accidental-discharge-at-n-illinois-gun-club/article_5a9320c2-ceb3-11e2-bb00-001a4bcf887a.html
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/highlands-ranch/man-arrested-for-accidental-discharge-of-gun-inside-highlands-ranch-pei-wei-shot-misses-family
43,699,998 more...
It happens every day in this gun-nut country.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)from your first link
"including the 69-year-old who mistakenly fired the 12-gauge.
Investigators say the man was putting away his gun when he accidentally put a live shotgun shell into the weapon, instead of a snap cap to protect the firing pin.
He pointed the gun at the ground inside the clubhouse and pulled the trigger."
Bet the second guy also pulled the trigger causing the gun to accidentally discharge.
tridim
(45,358 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)to research all of them. Be my guest since you stated all of those were discharges of guns going off by themselves without trigger pull. If you want to find a weapon firing without being handled please look, but out of the first two none were a weapon discharging by itself.
hack89
(39,171 posts)we are talking about guns rattling around in bags with no human touching them.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)But it looks like historically (if the numbers I'm looking at are right), it is by no means a record. Supposing the rate stays on track for the rest of the year there would be about 1800.
I found a master's thesis that had some historical numbers in it:
http://encompass.eku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=etd
The 90's was a bad ass decade
1992 2,608
1993 2,798
1994 2,994
1995 2,390
1996 2,155
1997 2,067
1998 1,515
1999 1,552
2000 1,937
In 2001 and 2002 the security changes occurred so they didn't list numbers
2003 683
2004 650
2005 2,217
2006 2,075
2007 1,416
2008 902
2009 889
The fluctuation of the numbers between 2003 and 2009 make me wonder about the accuracy though.
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)Whether it's the strong antihistamines they are dosing on or just plain stupidity, too many gun owners present a face like an ass to the rest of society, metaphorically speaking.
The other likelihood is that the scaredy-squirts brought the gun because they have a hero complex and were planning to shoot an anti-American on the flight, in the terminal, or on the car rental shuttle bus to or from the terminal.
One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. H. L. Mencken
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)I wonder how many they missed?
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)rrneck
(17,671 posts)2.75 million people or so fly domestically in the United States every year. And they found 894 guns.
http://www.transtats.bts.gov/
Now, lets assume that one passenger actually brought a gun on board in an attempt to hijack an airplane. The flight deck is secured, and the flight crew may be armed as well. Are there still armed air marshals? So what would our intrepid hijacker actually hope to do with his deadly weapon? Everybody on the aircraft will assume he plans to crash the plane into some important bit of infrastructure, so he will have one small handgun against a few hundred enraged passengers facing certain death if they don't subdue him. We can only hope that terrorists are actually that stupid.
Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)I worry more about bombs in cargo
Paladin
(28,204 posts)....you're too untrustworthy to have guns at all.