I’ve had some fun mocking the bureaucrats from the Transportation Security Administration, including stories such as:
o Confiscating a plastic hammer from a mentally retarded man.
o Detaining a woman for carrying breast milk.
o Hassling a woman for the unexplained red flag of having sequentially numbered checks.
o Demanding that a handicapped 4-year old boy walk through a metal detector without his leg braces.
o Putting an 8-year old cub scout on the no-fly list.
Keep in mind that these are the geniuses who still fail to catch guns and box cutters – even when using the body-scan equipment!
With this track record of incompetence, this next story probably won’t be too surprising. Here are some excerpts from a report showing a freaky combination of brainless stupidity and idiotic political correctness.
Vanessa Gibbs, 17, claims the Transportation Security Administration stopped her at the security gate because of the design of a gun on her handbag. Gibbs said she had no problem going through security at Jacksonville International Airport, but rather, when she headed home from Virginia. …her preference for the pistol style didn’t sit well with TSA agents at the Norfolk airport. Gibbs said she was headed back home to Jacksonville from a holiday trip when an agent flagged her purse as a security risk. “She was like, ‘This is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun,'” Gibbs said. “I’m like, ‘But it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?'” After agents figured out the gun was a fake, Gibbs said, TSA told her to check the bag or turn it over. By the time security wrapped up the inspection, the pregnant teen missed her flight, and Southwest Airlines sent her to Orlando instead, worrying her mother, who was already waiting for her to arrive at JIA. …TSA isn’t budging on the handbag, arguing the phony gun could be considered a “replica weapon.” The TSA says “replica weapons have prohibited since 2002.” It’s a rule that Vanessa feels can’t be applied to a purse. “Common sense,” she said. “It’s a purse, not a weapon.”
The moral of the story, needless to say, is that we should listen to Steve Chapman and shut down this counterproductive bureaucracy.
And then listen to Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz, so we can allow the private sector to do a better job at much lower cost.
(h/t: Instapundit)
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Be careful how you hold your hands. If you point at something it may look like you are making the sign of the gun! ‘Bang’ sounds are not required.
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[…] impressive displays of incompetence and stupidity such as preventing a girl from boarding a plane because her purse had an image of a gun and a local school calling the police because a little girl kissed a little boy in gym […]
Back in the 70’s when I was in elementary school I got sent to the principle’s office for playing war with a curved stick that was vaguely “shaped like a gun”.
I thought they were certifiably insane even at that age, but it looks like the like the hippie crap they were shoving down our throats affected some of the other kids brains.
Now they work for the TSA.
By the way, I joined the Army when I left school.
Tim,
One action would be to start bombarding your local state legislature representative with email in support of Randy E. Barnett’s plan in the column he wrote in Forbes. Professor Barnett teaches constitutional law at the Georgetown Law Center and is author of Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty
Costs nothing to do and gets things started.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/20/bill-of-federalism-constitution-states-supreme-court-opinions-contributors-randy-barnett.html
pas·sive
adj.
1. Receiving or subjected to an action without responding or initiating an action in return
Mr. Mitchell, well stated, but “passive” describes the articles, editorials, commentaries, and reader-responses that are found throughout the web, television, and printed media. What ACTION should be taken to change it? One action is who we vote into the Whitehouse next year. Which of the candidates has consistently vowed to act on changing the TSA problem? Any other actions that can be taken? C’mon, the CATO institute has the brain power to do better than joining in the lull of the media.
We’re just fortunate that Ms. Gibbs didn’t point her finger at someone and say “bang”.
Governments NEVER voluntarily give up power or control. These are duties and responsibilities that the federal government was nerver authorized under our Constitution. They would have to first acknowlege that it is not their job before giving it up. And they will not do that.
Good thing I’m being warned…I’m traveling tomorrow… and on a memory stick I was planning to carry on the plane in my briefcase, there was an image of a nail clipper… yes, it had been deleted, but sectors of the file, including dangerous portions of the image showing the sharp cutting surface, remained in the recycle bin…
I love you site, and the great articles you write. Great sense of humor. You are frequently cross blogged at http://www.achargingelephant.com Thanks for your work and all you do at CATO. J.C.
That is some depressing and scary business. ;-(
TSA=
T-Too
S-Stupid for
A-Arbys
This kind of B.S. is a result of a legal system gone mad. It’s the same lack of thinking that results in zero-tolerance policies in schools. If I made a judgment that one child’s carrying a water pistol is not exactly the same as another child’s .357 Magnum, then I’ve discriminated against the second child because that child is whatever, and some lawyer somewhere will file a lawsuit against me. So, treat everything the same to protect yourself from lawsuits. If we had a loser-pays system, maybe this would go away.