Why'd he go back? Was he in law enforcement? Who hunts near DC? What kind of gun was it? Was it an antique? 6 shooter? Rifle?

Details, details! Aw, darn.

Wow. The Airports have stopped every little thing from getting by! Shampoo bombs, sharp objects, Guns... Oh wait, no?

Who the heck carries a loaded gun through security, and if they're in law enforcement, how the heck do you forget?

Yeahbut...

They're not taking this incident seriously...

Well, are we surprised? It sounds like the TSA must have some kind of "illiteracy test" that must be taken before they hire someone.

Funny... I walked right through LAX with a pocket knife which was attached to my key chain which was wide out in the open ("please remove all metallic objects and place them in the bin", sound familiar?) and made it past security with it. Then I checked my stuff and noticed I still had my pocket knife. I walked straight back and surrendered it no questions asked. But I wasn't charged with anything. I just turned around and walked away. Why was this guy charged?

That'll teach him to be honest.

@UpsetPanda: I once had some training with a US Coast Guard law enforcement training officer (he trains other Coasties in law enforcement). To assist in his training he had one of those fake bright red rubber guns. He told me how one day he was in such a rush that he forgot he put it in his carry-on luggage. When he went through security at the airport (I forget which one) they spotted the outline of a gun in the x-ray machine and immediately pinned him up against a wall. After they realized it was a fake and he showed them his badge & other ID and explained why he had it they let him go after a stern lecture.

And that was years before 9/11...

LESSON LEARNED: If you found out you accidently brought a prohibited item past a checkpoint, don't tell on yourself!

Thanks for the education?

Nice work, Lou.

Reagan did, however, successfully confiscate my oversized tub of Bath and Body Works body wash.

misdemeanor? That's what bothers me.

They reeeeeallly thought that one through.

"What should we do to the infrequent (but gonnna eventually happen from time to time) person who accidentally gets through with a gun?"

Ohh, Ohh, I know! Bust him pronto and make an example and look like we are overreacting to cover our own ineptitude!! Let's make sure that absolutely no one who ever slips up will self-report in the future.
Think about it. If the goal is less guns on planes, an important aspect of that is make it easy, not insanely hard, to correct situations where one accidentally gets on.
Has the TSA ever, ever done the right thing? I mean, really, blind squirrels find acorns sometimes and stopped clocks are right 2x daily and all that, but has the TSA ever, ever chosen the wiser or more sensible choice in any given situation?

I like this from the origional article:

"We know this is not a systemic problem in that our testing indicates TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] have a very high success rate at finding firearms. Given the high degree of reliability that our TSOs can find even carefully concealed firearms, we are evaluating every aspect of this incident,"

I guess the 'very high success rate' is gathered by comparing the number of firearms they find to the ones that they do not find.

I need to try Scotch-taping a loaded firearm to my face.
See if they'll catch that one. Just see.

"A man carrying a loaded gun passed through the security checkpoint .... apparently because the gun wasn't floating in a shampoo bottle or hidden in a shoe."

Your writing style Mr. Walters, melts my jaded heart. Oh please do write more stories!

Virginia is a 'shall issue' state. That means so long as you're not a felon or adjudicated mentally ill it's legal to carry a concealed handgun. So, if you're accustomed to carrying a gun every day I can see how you can put in your briefcase and forget to take it out when you take the occasional airplane flight.

Also, it gives me a chuckle to hear a TSA spokesman say they "have a very high success rate at finding firearms." He carefully elides the fact that when screeners have been tested by TSA 'red teams' they failed to find mock explosives anywhere from 20% to 90% of the time.

TSA's statement that "We know this is not a systemic problem in that our testing indicates TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] have a very high success rate at finding firearms." is pure myopic spin.

The allegation that their problem is not, as they say, "systemic", is irrelevant.
The fact that it only takes one of their non-systemic failures to bring down a plane is what's very relevant.

The TSA at Reagan are good at confiscating a bar of fruit preserves I tried to bring through the security checkpoint. I kid you not, the explanation was that the viscosity of the preserves was too close to liquid. I suppose a gun is not at all liquidity.

Bake em' away toys!

tso's suck, we've already established that, now their suckiness has reached a broader audience. kudos.

to all who are questioning why he would turn himself in, can you imagine what would have happened to him if he boarded the plane and someone saw it en route?? he wisely chose the lesser of two shitty situations.

I feel safer already

The TSA, of course, couldn't just admit to a complete and utter cock-up and accept the blame and appreciate the honesty of the guy. Imagine what would have happened if he hadn't realized he was carrying it and boarded the plane and had a flight attendant or another passenger notice it while in flight or something.

Even if the guy wasn't in law enforcement, he may've had a concealed carry permit for the gun. That doesn't make it legal to carry in an airport of course, but it seems pretty definite that this guy made an honest mistake and reported it. I'm sure that's why he got a misdemeanor.

@mantari:

Protest has it right, if he'd been caught, he'd have been raked over the coals.

Too bad he didn't have a car or family member he could've quickly run it out to. Sure, he'd have had to go through security again, but I'd rather do that than be charged with a crime.

Now, now everyone. While they may not be so good at catching fire arms, they are almost 100% at catching dangerous things like water and toothpaste.

Next time I fly, I'm going to bring on a sculpted Jell-O dessert, in the shape of a gun, made from *exactly* three ounces of gelatin. It will be difficult to determine whether it is a solid or liquid, whether it is too much liquid (if it's a liquid), and whether it constitutes a weapon.

Furthermore, I'm going to put it in a separate baggie, but that baggie will be in my shoe.

I will bring this to the checkpoint and watch their heads explode.

The downside is, after that, all human heads will be deemed too dangerous to fly with.

Why would you go back and give them the gun or knife? They don't check you when you leave the plane do they? If I made it through I'd just keep going and continue on with my life. The last thing I want to do is draw the attention of a bunch of idiots...

Several years prior to 9/11, my Mom forgot she had a .38 in her purse when she dropped me off at the airport. She was in line to go through security when she saw the little pictures of prohibited items and suddenly remembered. She's not in law enforcement or anything; she just carries literally everywhere she goes - work, grocery store, church, bank, etc. It's so much a part of her routine that she really just forgot that she couldn't take it in the airport.

Dont ya just love it when people are punished for doing the right thing? :( In this case realizing they made a mistake & wanting to correct it.

I wonder if this was just a punishment because it made the TSA look like tards missing a gun.

I dont know how many times I have accidentally walked into a government building or a bank with a pocketknife in my back pocket without realizing it.

Guns are neither Shampoo, Hand Sanitizer, Batteries, Shoes, Zippo Lighters or Nail Clippers and therefore present no threat to the safety of our flight crew and passengers health from smoking or hygiene. For we all know that the future terrorist are more likely to sanatize us from all our germs and shampoo our hair and be nice enough to replace the batteries in our childrens gameboys.

I have a feeling that the TSA sheet said to watch out for Hair Stylists and people who work at radio shack.

charged him with "possessing or transporting a firearm into an air carrier terminal where prohibited, a misdemeanor.

Great it is a misdemeanor. That's gonna help me sleep at night.

They should just take his or her gun and put a round in his thigh. Right there in the middle of the airport. Two guys holding him down and "POP".

Do that 3-4 times and people won't "forget" anymore. If you get onto the plane with it, you take one in the forehead.

@secretcurse:

I'm sure that's why he got a misdemeanor.

As opposed to a felony? As opposed to life in prison? As opposed to being shot on the spot? How is it somehow ok to charge someone with a crime and give them a criminal record for doing the right thing? Charging this person at all shows that the TSA doesn't care about guns on planes, they care about rules being enforced for the sake of the rules themselves (not safety) and face being saved and sentences being handed down.

"We know this is not a systemic problem in that our testing indicates TSOs [Transportation Security Officers] have a very high success rate at finding firearms."

Utter bullshit. If it were a systemic problem, they'd never know. The only reason they found this guy was he came forward.

"Given the high degree of reliability that our TSOs can find even carefully concealed firearms, we are evaluating every aspect of this incident."

Also bullshit. Their TSOs high reliability isn't a reason for an investigation. Doubts about their reliability are.

This is just some PR scumbag following some "never admit weakness even when you're admitting weakness" doctrine.

@UpsetPanda:
If you're used to carrying it all the time, if you're accustomed to it being there, and you don't think about it, you could forget.

@Dibbler:
Once he realized he had it was probably afraid of what would happen on the off chance that someone noticed he had it when he was inside the "secure" area. I'm sure he'd be in a lot more trouble. (IMO he should be in zero trouble right now)

This happens a lot and whether we know it or not, we rely on the sanity of the gun carrier to not go ballistic (no pun intended) during flight. When I worked airport security 25 years ago, I caught a guy at Sea-Tac with a loaded firearm in his carry-on. While the police were interveiwing him, he said that he carried the gun with him everywhere (for protection), and had been flying cross country on busines regularly for the last couple weeks, and had in fact just arrived at Sea-Tac from Chicago, where he had gotten through security with no problem.

@bdslack: That's a great way to make no one admit to anything ever...as if we didn't already have a problem...

@rhombopteryx: Agreed wholeheartedly. Of course, as said previously by others, chances are people in the future will just say nothing and get on with life. Sounds like this poor sap should have done the same. He could have always mailed it back to himself via FedEx...

If the gun was legal, and he obviously wasn't trying to do anything wrong, why should he be charged with anything? Its obvious that it was an honest mistake because he brought it back.
Its just a gun, and the guy did absolutely nothing wrong. I don't think that I would ever forget my pistol was in its holster... but they are pretty comfortable... like a wallet. Cut the guy some slack.

Wait a minute. You're telling me that airport security is another ineffective government boondoggle?

I AM SHOCKED!

Who do we sue when hijacked airliners start hitting crap again?

@LeJerque:

Post of the year, hands down.

Please tell me that at least the Herbal Essences did not make it on that plane!

@Joafu: I don't seem to remember the TSA deeming hairgasms a threat to national security.

If they start charging people for voluntarily reporting things like this, who is going to voluntarily report from now on?

@bdslack: Lamest post of the year, hands down. The guy made an honest mistake, and REPORTED HIMSELF.

@canerican: Prediction: This guy's misdemeanor charge will be dismissed once he gets into court. His lawyer: honest mistake your honor, he tried to do the right thing by surrendering it to authorities, and yet he gets bagged.

why don't they just stop this problem of having to find weapons and terrorism in one step. Issue every adult a handgun when they are boarding the plane. Who's going to mess with planes full of people carrying guns?

It would be like a scene out of Police Squad, the bad guy pulls out a gun and then everyone else on the plan pulls one out and points it at him.

And if this guy is indeed a legal "concealed carry" holder.... he may get his permit/license revoked.

A lot of CCW states have pretty strict rules about mistakes like this.

@insightpatch: Just wait for the statistics to show that nine planes out of ten experience turbulence due to aggressive shower taking.

They must of missed it while they were strip searching the 5 year old, because his name was on the no fly list.

I had a similar thing happen to me...early flight, got up at 4AM, wasn't thinking and stuck my folding knife in my pocket. Got to the airport, dropped it in the bucket with my wallet and keys and picked it up on the other side before I even realized.

I wanted to do the "right" thing, but I figured that my "reward" would at the very least being detained, missing my flight and my ship's departure, but more likely I'd probably be charged with a crime. Based on this story, I made the right move.

Can we disband DHS yet?