6 ms·

TSA's gun policy: Confiscate it, Instagram it

36 points by grizzy 13y ago

Zikes 13y ago
This smells like a desperate attempt by the TSA to justify their own existence. Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. Knives especially are commonly carried and can easily be forgotten about.
- jlgreco 13y ago
  > Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. Exactly. If these were instances of the TSA actually protecting us then "passengers who try to go through security with a firearm usually get a citation and can face a fine" would not be the case. Not unless our plan is fining and citing terrorists out of existence.
  - caseysoftware 13y ago
    Personally, I see this as an attempt to add humor and levity to a repeated and horrible violation of our rights and person. "Hey, check out this gun! It has pink glitter! Aren't you glad we confiscated it!?"
- DanBC 13y ago
  > Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. TSA themselves have been saying that, once a week, every week, for some time now. (http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review) > Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.
- KeliNorth 13y ago
  It's also in very bad taste. Even if things were being brought on purposefully... it just feels wrong to have authorities sort-of bragging about catching law violators. It feels immature. Law enforcement is supposed to be serious. This kind of thing should only really be a number in a report, not a picture with a comment trying to be funny. It should be objective, neither heavy-handed or lackadaisical.
schrodingersCat 13y ago
Those sepia toned filters might actually make me rethink my opinion of the TSA. They should get plaid flannel uniforms and change their motto to "We were groping old ladies before it was cool"
SubZero 13y ago
While it is kind of a sad PR stunt from someone with a 14 year old hipster child at home, it is kind of cool if you look for the ways people try to smuggle goods and weapons onto flights.
- qwerty_asdf 13y ago
  Except for all the horrible jpeg compression artifacts. ...or is that considered "art" lately?
IanDrake 13y ago
I wonder how many TSA empoyees it takes to run an Instagram account. All kidding aside, I wonder what mega IT company won the bid to run the Instagram account.
- schrodingersCat 13y ago
  It being run a program called "Optical Grating". Its a low cost alternative to "PRISM"
- messick 13y ago
  Facebook. I heard they paid 1 billion USD for the privilege.
rev_null 13y ago
The guns and knives are the most popular images on the account, but are vastly outnumbered by pictures of bottled water and soda.
DanBC 13y ago
The headline is a bit odd. The TSA blog gives clear and simple instructions on how to take your weapons onto a plane. (Not loaded, not in your hand luggage.) Some people have said (on HN as well as other places) that the TSA have never stopped weapons getting on board a plane and if they had they would have heavily publicised it. In fact, they stop about 20 to 30 guns each week from getting on board a plane. Those guns and knives are posted to their blog. Perhaps posting images on Instagram will let more people know that the TSA manage to stop some weapons (although I don't care about the guns they stop, I care about the gun they don't stop and which is then used to harm someone) and to help remind people to put guns into checked baggage instead? (http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review) Note that I'm not defending particularly defending TSA here.
- nthj 13y ago
  > to help remind people to put guns into checked baggage instead I have to wonder how many of the firearms they stop are just regular law-abiding concealed handgun license bearers who, in their rush to get to the airport, forgot that they keep a loaded firearm in their purse, briefcase, or backpack. Since the penalty is a $7,500 fine and not 20 years in jail, I have to presume this scenario is far more common "malicious guy planned to hijack plane." This would be a very easy statistic to publish, too (only 10% of the people we stopped were even licensed to carry a handgun!), but since I haven't seen that statistic advertised, I would presume they find most of the stopped citizens to be guilty only of carelessness.
  - freehunter 13y ago
    To be fair, they're not regular law-abiding citizens if they're bringing a loaded gun into an airport and attempting to get on a plane with it. As much as I would love to see the TSA disappear tomorrow, some might argue that carelessness should be punished more often than it actually is...
    - nthj 13y ago
      Sure, happy to be pedantic. I meant "regular, non-malicious, normally law-abiding citizens, obviously in violation of the law this time, but not intentionally, because they got stressed out trying to make their flight on time and overlooked a (admittedly very serious) item in their bag." There are so many laws on the books these days I'm sure even my Grandma could be locked up for a couple decades.
asperous 13y ago
This feels kinda wrong, but I have to keep in mind that these people chose to give up these items. From the TSA Blog (I cannot confirm if true) When prohibited items come through the checkpoint, passengers are given options: 1) Take the item to the ticket counter and check it in your baggage or a box provided by the airport. 2) Many airports have a US Postal Service or other shipping services area where boxes, stamps and envelopes can be bought so you can ship your items home. 3) If there is somebody seeing you off, you can hand the prohibited item to them. 4) If your car is parked outside, you can take the item to your car.
- bwhite 13y ago
  In many places, none of these suggestions would help someone who realizes he is carrying a handgun. 1) There are guidelines for how the firearm must be shipped; simply sliding it into your checked baggage will not work. 2) Handguns are generally prohibited from being mailed via the USPS. 3) The person seeing you off may not be properly licensed to transport the handgun. 4) Storing a valuable object in a vehicle which is in long-term parking sounds like a bad idea. Municipalities which have strict theft-reporting requirements do not have exceptions for "I was out of town and didn't know that my car had been burgled."
  - asperous 13y ago
    1 & 2 are true for handguns (as checked luggage, they have to be in a hardsided locked case for example.) but 3 & 4 I think would practically be the best route, despite some risks.
- outworlder 13y ago
  Aren't you already inside the security checkpoint when the carry on is checked for? How can one leave items at the car by then?
  - korethr 13y ago
    In every airport I've been through, passengers and carry on baggage are checked before the you get past the checkpoint. Yes, the screening areas are usually roped off, but that's it. It's not terribly difficult for a TSA agent to have you step out of line and then lift a rope to allow you to exit the screening area. Yes, having to go back out to one's car and then return to the end of the line sucks, but it's probably better than having your stuff confiscated or being carried away in handcuffs.
dmazin 13y ago
One of the pictures has a clear visual date stamp with a "/90." Maybe this means nothing. But I wonder if they are misleadingly posting these as if they were just discovered, rather than over what appears to be at least 23 years.
- nateabele 13y ago
  > One of the pictures has a clear visual date stamp with a "/90." It's part of the vintage look.
- DanBC 13y ago
  The image is also on this page but without the date stamp. (http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/06/tsa-week-in-review-tsa-week-in-review.html http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/06/tsa-week-in-review-tsa-week-in-r...) Here's the URL. (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SysR15uPqBM/Uc4NPpBKBMI/AAAAAAAADHc/6vF5kmsJYHQ/s713/Knives+6-28-13+Presentation1.bmp.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SysR15uPqBM/Uc4NPpBKBMI/AAAAAAAADH...) Maybe they took it off for the blog post, or maybe Instagram put it on because 1990 is, uh, retro?
- mjschultz 13y ago
  Or you're reading it upside-down, making it "06/" which would mean it was taken in June (much less surprising since it is now early July).
mindcrime 13y ago
So our tax dollars are not only paying the TSA's jack-booted thugs to harass us at the airport, but they're also paying for TSA dorks to sit around and post on Instagram? Jeeeeebusssssss.... And people wonder why I'm such a government-hating Libertarian. sigh
ChuckMcM 13y ago
I note that every single one of them caught by running your bag under the x-ray and/or a metal detector. The TSA provides no evidence that grabbing your nutsack or fondling your wife's breasts has found any weapon or threat that a simple bag x-ray and a walk through metal detector wouldn't find.
jmspring 13y ago
It is worth pointing out, a trick a number of photographer friends use when having to check their photo gear is to include a flare gun (or was it a starter pistol) in the case and note that there is a firearm. It increases the scrutiny and tracking of the bag. Lifehacker had an article on it -- http://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuables-from-airline-theft-or-loss http://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuable...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

36 points by grizzy 13y ago

Zikes 13y ago

This smells like a desperate attempt by the TSA to justify their own existence. Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. Knives especially are commonly carried and can easily be forgotten about.

jlgreco 13y ago
> Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. Exactly. If these were instances of the TSA actually protecting us then "passengers who try to go through security with a firearm usually get a citation and can face a fine" would not be the case. Not unless our plan is fining and citing terrorists out of existence.
- caseysoftware 13y ago
  Personally, I see this as an attempt to add humor and levity to a repeated and horrible violation of our rights and person. "Hey, check out this gun! It has pink glitter! Aren't you glad we confiscated it!?"
DanBC 13y ago
> Note that none of these confiscated weapons by themselves necessarily constitute an intent to use them. TSA themselves have been saying that, once a week, every week, for some time now. (http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review) > Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.
KeliNorth 13y ago
It's also in very bad taste. Even if things were being brought on purposefully... it just feels wrong to have authorities sort-of bragging about catching law violators. It feels immature. Law enforcement is supposed to be serious. This kind of thing should only really be a number in a report, not a picture with a comment trying to be funny. It should be objective, neither heavy-handed or lackadaisical.

schrodingersCat 13y ago

Those sepia toned filters might actually make me rethink my opinion of the TSA. They should get plaid flannel uniforms and change their motto to "We were groping old ladies before it was cool"

SubZero 13y ago

While it is kind of a sad PR stunt from someone with a 14 year old hipster child at home, it is kind of cool if you look for the ways people try to smuggle goods and weapons onto flights.

qwerty_asdf 13y ago
Except for all the horrible jpeg compression artifacts. ...or is that considered "art" lately?

IanDrake 13y ago

I wonder how many TSA empoyees it takes to run an Instagram account. All kidding aside, I wonder what mega IT company won the bid to run the Instagram account.

schrodingersCat 13y ago
It being run a program called "Optical Grating". Its a low cost alternative to "PRISM"
messick 13y ago
Facebook. I heard they paid 1 billion USD for the privilege.

rev_null 13y ago

The guns and knives are the most popular images on the account, but are vastly outnumbered by pictures of bottled water and soda.

DanBC 13y ago

The headline is a bit odd. The TSA blog gives clear and simple instructions on how to take your weapons onto a plane. (Not loaded, not in your hand luggage.) Some people have said (on HN as well as other places) that the TSA have never stopped weapons getting on board a plane and if they had they would have heavily publicised it. In fact, they stop about 20 to 30 guns each week from getting on board a plane. Those guns and knives are posted to their blog. Perhaps posting images on Instagram will let more people know that the TSA manage to stop some weapons (although I don't care about the guns they stop, I care about the gun they don't stop and which is then used to harm someone) and to help remind people to put guns into checked baggage instead? (http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/Week%20In%20Review) Note that I'm not defending particularly defending TSA here.

nthj 13y ago
> to help remind people to put guns into checked baggage instead I have to wonder how many of the firearms they stop are just regular law-abiding concealed handgun license bearers who, in their rush to get to the airport, forgot that they keep a loaded firearm in their purse, briefcase, or backpack. Since the penalty is a $7,500 fine and not 20 years in jail, I have to presume this scenario is far more common "malicious guy planned to hijack plane." This would be a very easy statistic to publish, too (only 10% of the people we stopped were even licensed to carry a handgun!), but since I haven't seen that statistic advertised, I would presume they find most of the stopped citizens to be guilty only of carelessness.
- freehunter 13y ago
  To be fair, they're not regular law-abiding citizens if they're bringing a loaded gun into an airport and attempting to get on a plane with it. As much as I would love to see the TSA disappear tomorrow, some might argue that carelessness should be punished more often than it actually is...
  - nthj 13y ago
    Sure, happy to be pedantic. I meant "regular, non-malicious, normally law-abiding citizens, obviously in violation of the law this time, but not intentionally, because they got stressed out trying to make their flight on time and overlooked a (admittedly very serious) item in their bag." There are so many laws on the books these days I'm sure even my Grandma could be locked up for a couple decades.

asperous 13y ago

This feels kinda wrong, but I have to keep in mind that these people chose to give up these items. From the TSA Blog (I cannot confirm if true) When prohibited items come through the checkpoint, passengers are given options: 1) Take the item to the ticket counter and check it in your baggage or a box provided by the airport. 2) Many airports have a US Postal Service or other shipping services area where boxes, stamps and envelopes can be bought so you can ship your items home. 3) If there is somebody seeing you off, you can hand the prohibited item to them. 4) If your car is parked outside, you can take the item to your car.

bwhite 13y ago
In many places, none of these suggestions would help someone who realizes he is carrying a handgun. 1) There are guidelines for how the firearm must be shipped; simply sliding it into your checked baggage will not work. 2) Handguns are generally prohibited from being mailed via the USPS. 3) The person seeing you off may not be properly licensed to transport the handgun. 4) Storing a valuable object in a vehicle which is in long-term parking sounds like a bad idea. Municipalities which have strict theft-reporting requirements do not have exceptions for "I was out of town and didn't know that my car had been burgled."
- asperous 13y ago
  1 & 2 are true for handguns (as checked luggage, they have to be in a hardsided locked case for example.) but 3 & 4 I think would practically be the best route, despite some risks.
outworlder 13y ago
Aren't you already inside the security checkpoint when the carry on is checked for? How can one leave items at the car by then?
- korethr 13y ago
  In every airport I've been through, passengers and carry on baggage are checked before the you get past the checkpoint. Yes, the screening areas are usually roped off, but that's it. It's not terribly difficult for a TSA agent to have you step out of line and then lift a rope to allow you to exit the screening area. Yes, having to go back out to one's car and then return to the end of the line sucks, but it's probably better than having your stuff confiscated or being carried away in handcuffs.

dmazin 13y ago

One of the pictures has a clear visual date stamp with a "/90." Maybe this means nothing. But I wonder if they are misleadingly posting these as if they were just discovered, rather than over what appears to be at least 23 years.

nateabele 13y ago
> One of the pictures has a clear visual date stamp with a "/90." It's part of the vintage look.
DanBC 13y ago
The image is also on this page but without the date stamp. (http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/06/tsa-week-in-review-tsa-week-in-review.html http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/06/tsa-week-in-review-tsa-week-in-r...) Here's the URL. (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SysR15uPqBM/Uc4NPpBKBMI/AAAAAAAADHc/6vF5kmsJYHQ/s713/Knives+6-28-13+Presentation1.bmp.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SysR15uPqBM/Uc4NPpBKBMI/AAAAAAAADH...) Maybe they took it off for the blog post, or maybe Instagram put it on because 1990 is, uh, retro?
mjschultz 13y ago
Or you're reading it upside-down, making it "06/" which would mean it was taken in June (much less surprising since it is now early July).

mindcrime 13y ago

So our tax dollars are not only paying the TSA's jack-booted thugs to harass us at the airport, but they're also paying for TSA dorks to sit around and post on Instagram? Jeeeeebusssssss.... And people wonder why I'm such a government-hating Libertarian. sigh

ChuckMcM 13y ago

I note that every single one of them caught by running your bag under the x-ray and/or a metal detector. The TSA provides no evidence that grabbing your nutsack or fondling your wife's breasts has found any weapon or threat that a simple bag x-ray and a walk through metal detector wouldn't find.

jmspring 13y ago

It is worth pointing out, a trick a number of photographer friends use when having to check their photo gear is to include a flare gun (or was it a starter pistol) in the case and note that there is a firearm. It increases the scrutiny and tracking of the bag. Lifehacker had an article on it -- http://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuables-from-airline-theft-or-loss http://lifehacker.com/5448014/pack-a-gun-to-protect-valuable...

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]