Mission statement:

Armed and Safe is a gun rights advocacy blog, with the mission of debunking the "logic" of the enemies of the Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms.

I can be reached at 45superman@gmail.com.You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/45superman.

Monday, January 19, 2009

A potential 'terrorist' in the eyes of the TSA

Horror stories about small minded, bureaucratic fascism on the part of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) abound--War on Guns alone has documented a bunch. This one, however, strikes me as particularly outrageous:

Mom just called. Dad is being unlawfully detained by Homeyland Security/TSA at Austin Bergstrom airport because we played with .45s this morning before they left to go back to IL and the ion sniffer machine was suspicious of him because he smelled remotely like smokeless powder on a "washed my hands and changed clothes before I drove to the airport" level.

Welcome to the Police State.

Ain't America Beautiful? Fookin Beautiful place to be! ...especially for shooting enthusiasts that fly commercial.

FWIW: He's a LtCol (USAFR). I thought that Military personnel were allowed to smell like gun powder. I guess he should have worn his uniform instead of dressed casual.

God, it's times like these that make me just want to kick holes in the walls. Him getting fingerf*cked over shooting guns before he even gets to IL today. Jayzus effiin Kee-Riste!
The (very justifiably) angry man who wrote that is "Tom," who likes to build and shoot handguns chambered for elephant rifle calibers (and I thought I was nuts).

So let's take a look at what we have here--an Air Force Reserve Lieutenant Colonel visiting his son gets some quality time at the range with the following:



Afterward, he washes up and changes clothes before going to the airport, but the tiny quantities of smokeless powder residue that remain are still enough to get him flagged as a potential terrorist (can't have our military men firing nasty guns now, can we?).

Tom emailed me after hearing that his father's ordeal had finally ended--after almost two hours (and after missing his flight, naturally).

Gee, I feel safer already.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will only feel safe when the DNR of each state declares year'round open season on TSA pests. much like they do on rats.

Of course, Sebastian, Uncle, and so many others have no problem with it. They have nothing to hide. until of course the list of things to hide, changes. Like minding your own damn business. Damn that can be a problem.

Who can verify that you were minding your "own damn business'?

You will have to come with us until we can verify that you were minding your "own damn business".

What the fuck the could go wrong with that?

Any pragmatic person would willingly be violated in such manner. Whereas some of us less enlightened, (read that, less chickenshit) would not.prowli