Don't put empty magazines in your carry on...

[bernie-attorney]

As long as we're on airport security stories . . .

It's pre-9/11 in Maryland(!), and I'm on jury duty. I'm an attorney, and did prosecution and defense in courts-martial in my early career, so I've dodged making the cut for juries all week.

So I'm on a new panel of 24 from which a 12-person jury will be picked. We file in, and one of the DA's (State's Attorney) first questions is: "who's a member of the NRA?" Six hands go up! In Maryland! Out of 24 people! I was so proud -- and I figured It was no sweat (for me and the other 5) to get off this jury. We're told the case involves a gun law violation. After voir dire, 5 of the 6 of us make it onto the jury (the pro se defendant challenged the 6th guy off for some reason), and I'm thinking, 'this is wierd.'

The case: a 50-something retired USAF E-8 now working for the USPS travelled thru BWI enroute CA to see off his USAF O-2 daughter (think of how proud he must have been) who was being assigned to Korea. His bag goes thru the scanner, and the operator makes a PA call for "Mr. Brown" -- guess what color MD state troopers wear? 'Mr. Brown' pulls out a gun from a side pocket of the carry-on. We jurors head off to the jury room at that point while some procedural stuff goes on, admission of the gun IIRC; everyone in the jury room (except me and maybe the other NRA folks) is saying, 'no brainer, how do you not know you've got a gun? Big, heavy, etc.'

We head back in. The DA gets the gun admitted: a .25 semi, about the size of a deck of cards, and about six teeny-tiny rounds. The Senior Master Sergeant represented himself -- a really gutsy move. He got the trooper back on the stand, and basically asked, "And how did I react?" "You were REALLY surprised." "What did I say?" "'How in God's name did THAT get in there!?!'" He then put himself on the stand. Turns out he and his wife had gone thru counselling during her final illness, because he had been gravely depressed. The counsellor told the wife to hide any firearms. He picked the bag they never used for travel -- the one she'd hidden the .25 in.

That DA was smart: politcally, it was kinda the case that had to go forward in a state like MD, but she set the table for the correct and just out-come. She kept telling us in her closing that this was an easy decision, a no brainer -- yet she never made a direct pitch for per se guilt, so we could take 'no-brainer' in either direction. It took us 10 minutes (formally -- we felt compelled to talk about it, although no one disagreed) to find him not guilty -- and the non-NRA types didn't need any help from us NRA types, once they saw and hefted the .25.

So we report back, the judge says 'thanks, dismissed,' and the bailiff asks the SMSgt if he want his gun back. "I never want to see that thing again in my entire life."

[speedsix]

...that story deserves its own thread...amazing to hear of common sense and true justice prevailing in one of the most anti-gun states...awesome!!!

[mkosmo]

Happily, the current Harris County D.A. is one of those who declines to prosecute such 'oops' incidents at airport security here in Houston.

Really? I've never really seen or heard anything to indicate one way or another. I know she doesn't like taking charges that aren't a surefire slam dunk, so perhaps oopsies just aren't good enough for her career

The officer who responded to me didn't even call the DA's office to see if they'd take charges. When he got there I handed him my CHL (I believe I said "I should probably show -you- this" -- and the TSA agents seemed a bit confused as to why they wouldn't have been shown something, but they were overall really great people), and since my DL was still tied up with TSA, he walked off and radioed me in. When he came back, he said since I didn't have any entries in TCIC or SETCIC, he was done with me and handed me back my CHL and he walked off. At that point TSA was done too and off I went still a nervous wreck.

On the bright side, every TSA agent I encountered (from the xray tech to the examiner to the supervisors) were all really nice people about it all. These specific guys certainly aren't the ones you hear horror stories about online.

[blackdog8200]

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/ ... ems.shtm#6

There are signs all over the place too...you can't even carry on shotgun chokes.

Do you know where you information went? They have name, address, number...on a blank piece of paper. And they know you own firearms.

Tell me where on that link it says "magazines"? I think the whole thing is very vague.

And ya...I guess "they" know, but the state should already know since I have a CHL. Oh well.

From the section about checking your guns:

'Firearm magazines and ammunition clips must be securely boxed or included within a hard-sided case containing an unloaded firearm. "

A long time ago on a trip back from Montana, after about the third plane change and pass through security, they notice my dad had a 10 Black powder .45 cal pistol barrels in his carry on. No tang, just unfinshed, rifled barrles wrapped in newspaper with rubber bands around them. They asked hime "Sir, what are these?" He said oh those are barrels to make pistols from....

Then he got the LOOK from the security guys.... "But you can't take these on the plane!" and he said I already have two flights before.... They said "why don't we check these for you?" and did.

Ahh the days before TSA derrangement syndrome set in.

[Toorop]

More TSA silliness. My rule of thumb is that anything that I use for my EDC except for my phone, wallet, keys, and watch goes into my carryon bag. I don't have time to deal with the stupidity of the TSA.