The bigger threat at airports, inasmuch as there is one, comes from the employees, not the passengers. Employees at all levels have unfettered access to airports and airplanes. They roam freely behind the scenes, from the so-called “sterile” area, beloved of TSA bureaucrats, to the planes themselves. Mechanics, baggage handlers, restaurant workers, service employees, you name it—while we’re standing in line and getting harassed, bullied, stripped, and groped, everyone else is getting a pass.
Including gun-runners.
In case you missed the story, five men were recently arrested for smuggling guns on planes. It seems they had a good operation going, running guns on routes from Atlanta to New York. Current and former Delta employees were allegedly involved:
“If they can put guns on the plane this time,” he told reporters, “they could have easily put a bomb on one of those planes.”
Two men worked together to smuggle guns and ammunition on at least 20 flights from Atlanta to New York from May to December, officials said.
“We have an egregious breach of security” at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport because airport employees “are not required to go through screening,” said Thompson.
In total, 153 guns were recovered as part of a complex investigation . . .
At the news conference, Thompson held one of the weapons allegedly smuggled by Henry—an AK-47.
“This gun can shoot through a car door,” he said. “It can shoot through an apartment door. It can shoot through a bullet-proof vest. In November, Mr. Henry brought this gun on a Delta commercial airliner to New York.”
. . . The criminal complaint also says on several occasions this year, Harvey used his security clearance to enter the secure Delta employee parking lot—even though he was supposed to be off or on sick leave.
And on each of those dates, Henry boarded a flight from Atlanta to New York.
The district attorney described how Georgia’s “lax gun laws” allowed the baggage handler to buy weapons online without a background check. The handler carried the guns into work, free from any detector, and used his airport ID to take them through an employee entrance into the secure passenger area. There he would meet his accomplice in a men’s room and exchange guns for cash. The accomplice, previously cleared through check-in, would load up his carry-on and take weapons aboard, even as the pilots and flight crews had to go through detectors.
Meanwhile, the TSA is busy confiscating toy guns, and you and your 13-year-old daughter get felt up by some goon in blue as you wait to board a plane.
And before people start screaming, “EVERYONE needs to be felt up!” which I know millions of Americans believe, I want to emphasize:
There is no such thing as 100% security.There is no such thing. That is a fantasy. A childish—and dangerous—fantasy, clung to by people who want A Guarantee in life. There are no guarantees. There are only common sense principles and rational precautions. As the recent plane crashes in southeast Asia and the unfolding actions in Paris demonstrate.
You cannot guard against Every Single Bad Thing That Might Ever Happen. And if you think you can, I suggest you stay home cowering under the bed, for fear you might get shot or stabbed or strangled or run over by a car or electrocuted by a falling wire or killed by a terrorist. Oh, wait—staying home might not be such a good idea, after all: more people are killed in this country by household appliances than by terrorists.
The TSA isn’t protecting us from anything. On the contrary, it’s endangering us. Individually, with its abusive searches; and collectively, by violating our civil liberties, by encouraging a climate of fear, and by massing throngs of people together in one tightly packed space where anyone could spray the concourse with a gun or set off a bomb, both of which have already happened, the former in Los Angeles and the latter in Moscow.
If you think some magical force can protect you from Every Bad Thing That Might Ever Happen, perhaps you should seek help for your irrational beliefs. And you’re the one who should stop flying. Leave the rest of us, who choose to live by reason and not by fear, alone. Let us take to the skies and live our lives in freedom. It’s obviously too potent a resource to entrust to you.
Lisa Simeone is a writer, editor, political activist, Glamour Girl, and radio host. She publishes ABombazine, where this originally appeared.
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TSA logic: Carry on water, get groped; run guns, get a pass
Posted on January 13, 2015 by Lisa Simeone
We’ve only been saying it for years.
The bigger threat at airports, inasmuch as there is one, comes from the employees, not the passengers. Employees at all levels have unfettered access to airports and airplanes. They roam freely behind the scenes, from the so-called “sterile” area, beloved of TSA bureaucrats, to the planes themselves. Mechanics, baggage handlers, restaurant workers, service employees, you name it—while we’re standing in line and getting harassed, bullied, stripped, and groped, everyone else is getting a pass.
Including gun-runners.
In case you missed the story, five men were recently arrested for smuggling guns on planes. It seems they had a good operation going, running guns on routes from Atlanta to New York. Current and former Delta employees were allegedly involved:
And from the New York Times:
Meanwhile, the TSA is busy confiscating toy guns, and you and your 13-year-old daughter get felt up by some goon in blue as you wait to board a plane.
And before people start screaming, “EVERYONE needs to be felt up!” which I know millions of Americans believe, I want to emphasize:
There is no such thing as 100% security. There is no such thing. That is a fantasy. A childish—and dangerous—fantasy, clung to by people who want A Guarantee in life. There are no guarantees. There are only common sense principles and rational precautions. As the recent plane crashes in southeast Asia and the unfolding actions in Paris demonstrate.
You cannot guard against Every Single Bad Thing That Might Ever Happen. And if you think you can, I suggest you stay home cowering under the bed, for fear you might get shot or stabbed or strangled or run over by a car or electrocuted by a falling wire or killed by a terrorist. Oh, wait—staying home might not be such a good idea, after all: more people are killed in this country by household appliances than by terrorists.
The TSA isn’t protecting us from anything. On the contrary, it’s endangering us. Individually, with its abusive searches; and collectively, by violating our civil liberties, by encouraging a climate of fear, and by massing throngs of people together in one tightly packed space where anyone could spray the concourse with a gun or set off a bomb, both of which have already happened, the former in Los Angeles and the latter in Moscow.
If you think some magical force can protect you from Every Bad Thing That Might Ever Happen, perhaps you should seek help for your irrational beliefs. And you’re the one who should stop flying. Leave the rest of us, who choose to live by reason and not by fear, alone. Let us take to the skies and live our lives in freedom. It’s obviously too potent a resource to entrust to you.
Lisa Simeone is a writer, editor, political activist, Glamour Girl, and radio host. She publishes ABombazine, where this originally appeared.