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According to http://sos.noaa.gov/Datasets/dataset.php?id=44 http://sos.noaa.gov/Datasets/dataset.php?id=44 there are 29000 commercial flights per day in the US

According to http://sos.noaa.gov/Datasets/dataset.php?id=44 http://sos.noaa.gov/Datasets/dataset.php?id=44 there are 29000 commercial flights per day in the US. If the 7 guns per day corresponds to 4% found, that would mean that there are 7.0/0.04 - 7 = 168 guns per day not found. That's abound 1/2 percent of flights (one in 172) where a gun got aboard undetected.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago
There's a huge difference between someone trying to get a gun through security and some poor person who just accidentally forgot it was here. The latter would be way easier to detect than the former. Of course it's the former that we really care about.
- DanBC 11y ago
  I don't care about terrorists, because that's fantastically rare. I do care about the fucking idiots who carry a lethal weapon but forget that they're carrying a lethal weapon, because those are the people who are less likely to keep that weapon away from tiny children. (Roughly one shooting a week in 2015 by children under the age of 3 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11932821/toddler-shooting-gun-controls-america.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1...)
  - avar 11y ago
    Aren't those numbers overwhelmingly related to someone leaving a gun in a drawer at home and a toddler finding it? What does this have to do with airport security? Do you think someone's going to accidentally bring a gun to an airplane and their toddler somehow manages to find it during the trip and shoot themselves? That seems like an awfully contrived scenario.
    - DanBC 11y ago
      If you're the kind of idiot who forgets that you have a gun in your bag you're the kind of idiot that forgets to put it in out of the reach of children. We want those people to be discovered, and reminded to keep their lethal weapon in a safe place and to remember at all times where their lethal weapon is.
      - hueving 11y ago
        Don't lash out at people you clearly don't understand. When storing a gun in a bag you don't leave it loaded and you certainly don't leave it loaded with the safety off. In many cases these even likely have a lock on them (I lock when transporting them).
        nommm-nommm 11y ago
        >Don't lash out at people you clearly don't understand. You're the one who doesn't understand. The article says 83% of the guns found by TSA were loaded. So perhaps we can concluded that the kind of person to absent-mindedly carry a gun in their carry on are the kind of people who also don't handle guns safely?
        douche 11y ago
        It's pretty stupid to carry an unloaded personal defense gun. You might as well just carry a brick at that point.
        nommm-nommm 11y ago
        I know very little about gun safety (don't own them) so I claim ignorance in the topic. I was addressing the GP who said "you don't understand people don't transport loaded guns in their bag" when the article specifically said "83% of guns found in carry on bags were loaded." Which means people are clearly doing it. I don't know the specifics of the safety of such a practice but I took GPs word on the topic that said practice was unsafe (or inadvisable).
    - celticninja 11y ago
      I think their point is that if you forget about a gun when you are travelling on a plane then you are the sort of person who probably does not take a great deal of care of your weapons, i.e. knowing where it is at all times. It is these sort of guns that are found by children, not the ones stored in gun cabinets or in locked drawers.
    - nommm-nommm 11y ago
      I don't think its too contrived to imagine if someone forgets they have a loaded gun in their bag at the airport that they would also forget they have a loaded gun in their bag when they set it down in the hallway at home. Thus gun is not locked up and is in easy reach of children.
    - jdietrich 11y ago
      Accidentally bringing a gun to an airport is symptomatic of a careless attitude to firearm ownership. It means that you're not absolutely certain of where your firearms are at any moment. Whilst this mindset may be socially and legally acceptable in many American states, it is a fundamental reason for the high rates of accidental shootings. Here in the UK, a licensed firearm owner is strictly responsible for their firearms. Firearms may only be transported in a locked case, directly to and from their place of use. When kept at home, they must be stored in a police-approved safe. Accidentally bringing a firearm or ammunition to an airport would result in criminal charges and revocation of your license. Similar laws apply in most European countries.
  - seanmcdirmid 11y ago
    But finding careless gun owners has nothing to do with aircraft security. And anyways, the point is moot because the TSA probably has no problem finding guns that aren't intentionally concealed. That the TSA has a problem with intentional concealment is unrelated to careless gun owners, and anyways, means estimates about apples missed given how some oranges were missed aren't accurate, nor are they useful.

seanmcdirmid 11y ago

There's a huge difference between someone trying to get a gun through security and some poor person who just accidentally forgot it was here. The latter would be way easier to detect than the former. Of course it's the former that we really care about.

DanBC 11y ago
I don't care about terrorists, because that's fantastically rare. I do care about the fucking idiots who carry a lethal weapon but forget that they're carrying a lethal weapon, because those are the people who are less likely to keep that weapon away from tiny children. (Roughly one shooting a week in 2015 by children under the age of 3 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11932821/toddler-shooting-gun-controls-america.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1...)
- avar 11y ago
  Aren't those numbers overwhelmingly related to someone leaving a gun in a drawer at home and a toddler finding it? What does this have to do with airport security? Do you think someone's going to accidentally bring a gun to an airplane and their toddler somehow manages to find it during the trip and shoot themselves? That seems like an awfully contrived scenario.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    If you're the kind of idiot who forgets that you have a gun in your bag you're the kind of idiot that forgets to put it in out of the reach of children. We want those people to be discovered, and reminded to keep their lethal weapon in a safe place and to remember at all times where their lethal weapon is.
    - hueving 11y ago
      Don't lash out at people you clearly don't understand. When storing a gun in a bag you don't leave it loaded and you certainly don't leave it loaded with the safety off. In many cases these even likely have a lock on them (I lock when transporting them).
      - nommm-nommm 11y ago
        >Don't lash out at people you clearly don't understand. You're the one who doesn't understand. The article says 83% of the guns found by TSA were loaded. So perhaps we can concluded that the kind of person to absent-mindedly carry a gun in their carry on are the kind of people who also don't handle guns safely?
        douche 11y ago
        It's pretty stupid to carry an unloaded personal defense gun. You might as well just carry a brick at that point.
        nommm-nommm 11y ago
        I know very little about gun safety (don't own them) so I claim ignorance in the topic. I was addressing the GP who said "you don't understand people don't transport loaded guns in their bag" when the article specifically said "83% of guns found in carry on bags were loaded." Which means people are clearly doing it. I don't know the specifics of the safety of such a practice but I took GPs word on the topic that said practice was unsafe (or inadvisable).
  - celticninja 11y ago
    I think their point is that if you forget about a gun when you are travelling on a plane then you are the sort of person who probably does not take a great deal of care of your weapons, i.e. knowing where it is at all times. It is these sort of guns that are found by children, not the ones stored in gun cabinets or in locked drawers.
  - nommm-nommm 11y ago
    I don't think its too contrived to imagine if someone forgets they have a loaded gun in their bag at the airport that they would also forget they have a loaded gun in their bag when they set it down in the hallway at home. Thus gun is not locked up and is in easy reach of children.
  - jdietrich 11y ago
    Accidentally bringing a gun to an airport is symptomatic of a careless attitude to firearm ownership. It means that you're not absolutely certain of where your firearms are at any moment. Whilst this mindset may be socially and legally acceptable in many American states, it is a fundamental reason for the high rates of accidental shootings. Here in the UK, a licensed firearm owner is strictly responsible for their firearms. Firearms may only be transported in a locked case, directly to and from their place of use. When kept at home, they must be stored in a police-approved safe. Accidentally bringing a firearm or ammunition to an airport would result in criminal charges and revocation of your license. Similar laws apply in most European countries.
- seanmcdirmid 11y ago
  But finding careless gun owners has nothing to do with aircraft security. And anyways, the point is moot because the TSA probably has no problem finding guns that aren't intentionally concealed. That the TSA has a problem with intentional concealment is unrelated to careless gun owners, and anyways, means estimates about apples missed given how some oranges were missed aren't accurate, nor are they useful.