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Delta Airlines Security Theater Claims a Victim…Me

Dan Zimmerman - comments 115 comments

Reader Michael in GA writes:

I’ve been working at Delta Airlines for 31 years. For the previous 20 years of my life, I grew up under the roar of the jets screaming over my head while at school and home in Red Oak, Georgia. The airport is my life and my life has been Delta.
But I may be in search of a new career as of this morning. And not by choice.

Anti-gun hysteria has hit home. Not just close to home, but home. You may not be familiar with the gun smuggling case a few years back involving two former Delta employees who were shipping gun into New York, but you can read about it here and here.

This is where all the bullshit began. As you probably know, New York has very restrictive gun laws. Progressive leaders have successfully infringed on the right to keep and bear arms in the Empire State, a direct violation of the Bill of Rights. This has created a black market for popular arms that are held by many law abiding citizens in free states. States like Georgia.

These former Delta employees smuggled guns to New York City on several Delta flights in order to capitalize on the restrictions unconstitutionally imposed there. After a political zealot, Brooklyn New York District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, prosecuted the case, he pressured his anti-freedom counterpart in Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed, to do something about this “egregious breech of security.” Delta, being beholden to the political leaders here, agreed to “give full cooperation” to the authorities in addressing this issue.

What that means is, for the first time in my 30-year career, I now have to be screened before work every day. On the first day, my wife put a steak knife in my lunch to cut some grilled chicken she’d packed for me. The security contractors discovered this “prohibited item” and confiscated it. I was only allowed to proceed to my work area after my supervisor was summoned. I was, however, allowed to retain my job.

Fast forward to last week. On my way out the door, I recalled that I didn’t have a spare magazine in my truck for my personal defense weapon. I like to keep extra ammo handy because the world we live in today is so unpredictable and I have the right to defend myself and my loved ones. So I tossed a spare mag containing 15 9mm defensive cartridges into the cargo pocket of my work pants with the intention of stowing it in my truck.

As you can probably guess, I forgot to remove the magazine from my pocket before approaching the security checkpoint. When the metal detector sounded, I realized my error. I negotiated to return the item to my truck, which was met with resistance. I had to divulge the “prohibited item” and sign a “PIN Form (Prohibited Item Notification), just as I did with the steak knife.

Fine. I’d been through this before. I might be a little late for work, but all would be well. Except this time…guns!

The College Park Police were called. They in turn called the TSA. The TSA called the city’s Department of Aviation, who then called corporate security for Delta. And security called my supervisor.

Guess which one had my back? No one from Delta.

The local police officer was the only person who used any common sense. She said, “Go put it back in your truck.”
But the DoA confiscated my security badge. Delta confiscated my Delta ID. And the security contractor confiscated my GLOCK magazine and ammo.

So I am currently unemployed pending an investigation by the DoA and a review of my file by Delta…a record that is clean with the exception of the steak knife incident. Not that the DoA likely cares. It’s not looking good for the home team. Tell me again how we live in a free nation?

115 thoughts on “Delta Airlines Security Theater Claims a Victim…Me”

  1. If you’re airline, you’re union. If your union won’t push back 300%, put it out there to your union brothers that your union is only exercising its “strength in numbers” against one of its members (you). I’d get an attorney with a hard-on for this stuff and start talking all kinds of extra sheets of legal paper needed to list (what will be) co-respondents in a lawsuit. I’d get a letter in the works from your Governor, and (a general letter) from the FAA (assuming your job requires licensure).

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  2. This sounds like the people that “forget” they have a firearm in their carry-on luggage. Unfortunately, this falls under the “this is why we can’t have nice things” category and being a bonehead is no excuse. You do something stupid, you live with the consequences. Even if they aren’t fair or enforced (un-enforced) equally across the nation.

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  3. I’ve got an original colt trooper .38 with original stocks and in good condition. Maybe not in my life time but maybe for my kids down the line.

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  4. Tell me why this does not happen in Europe, Canada, japan let alone Australia on a daily basis?

    Keeping living your delusions the world is dangerous, It’s only “dangerous” because nutbars like you want it to be. One of the reasons criminals and nutbars get guns is because people like you refuse to keep them locked up when not in use. Don’t understand how keeping them locked in a safe bolted down on a floor is considered “unconstitutional”. One of the other reasons criminals in the foreign countries get guns is that most of them came from this country. During my trip to British Columbia, Canada where spree shootings
    are rare or unheard of but still far safer then the US. Any guns that criminals were caught with were traced to have come from the US by the RCMP.

    As I plan to head to possibly head to Europe possibly Spain or Sweden or maybe Italy. I’ve been around the world many times to know your “views” are shit. The world is not the hellhole morons that believe whatever crap that comes from this website or your gun-master pimps the fascist NRA .

    The “good guy” in that 3rd world red-state Texas didn’t save anyone, 20+ innocent people are still dead which debunks your whole “good guy comes to save the day” bullshit. There were no “good guys” in vegas when a nutbar went off his rocker and shot people, It turns out the “good guys” that were there which were ccw owners RAN AWAY from the attacker which proves that you people are nothing but cowards while the unarmed stayed to risk their very lives to save others.

    Meanwhile, The rest of the world wonders why this country will never change, never evolve into something the founding fathers wanted to be. The founders weep as your worldview and your russian puppet turns our country into modern day warzone.

    Despite your lies. The rest of the civilized world counties to do fine while people like you threaten to kill others for refusing to not believe in climate change denial.

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  5. “HR 38 would ensure that the “full faith and credit” clause of the Constitution applies to concealed carry permits the same way that it currently applies to drivers licenses, marriage licenses, and generally every other legal status of any kind.” – This sentence almost couldn’t be more wrong. Full faith and credit applies to marriages, not licenses, and some other legal statuses. It does not apply to driver’s licenses.

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  6. I love, Love, Love the idea of National reciprocity. I do… but Fix the NICS May be too high a price to pay. I’m disappointed in Republican Leadership in the House for bundling these. HR 38 probably would have passed in the house without it, and either way, it still probably won’t pass in the Senate. If anything, the Senate may still try to pass Fix the NICS on it’s own.

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  7. So you support H.R. 4477. You support no buy lists that completely hamstring due process.

    Would you mind putting in full disclousre about what H.R. 4477 actually was instead of glassing over it? I thought this was THE TRUTH about guns, not we’ll fill you in on what we think is relevant about guns.

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    • Fix NICS holds reporting agencies accountable and raises reporting rates from once every 12 months to once every 6. Please stop losing your minds, it’s literally nothing and, in fact, lowers response time allowances on NICS adjudications from a year to 60 days. For once in their miserable lives, the Dems actually did something tangentially pro-gun.

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      • So a string of 60 day holds if they’re teally backed up on clearing the holds???????????? Maybe it’s a FING FUNDRAISER to hire more FING “hold clearers” ???? Can’t bill for bloated bureaucracy until you cause the taxpayers to really need one. What about fixes for real (but minor) infractions that get you on the list, maybe paying a small to medium to large fine (cough* donation) to a FING liberal cause of your choice may get you off the hook (if they don’t use their unsecure illegal bathroom server to look up a British agent to hire GPS to write a fake pee pee dossier so the former FBI directors can get FING OOODLES OF $$$$ [more than the Benghazi investigation, in 1/4th the time] to F with a seated duly elected president and while they try to hide all their tracks).

        F the evil POS (D) the rinos and establishment gov’t. Drain the swamp.

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  8. Here we go with “It’s somebody else’s fault” again. Through forgetfulness or careless you broke the rules with the steak knife and got by with it. That should have been a red flag to be more careful but you then broke the rules even worse with the magazine problem. I don’t feel sorry for your situation but I might be a little concerned that someone with your forgetfulness or carelessness might have a impact on the safety of the plane.

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  9. If I was into long range shooting I’d look into this. I have a stock RA in .243 with a Redfield 3-9 scope on top. It will do all I need to do to 300 yards. Maybe farther but 300 is all my old eyes and skill level will allow.

    But at 300 yards that deer or yote is mine. That’s all I need.

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  10. Every time I fly. I make damn sure of what I have on my body, in my carry on and in my checked baggage, Yes it is a pain but following the rules and not being hassled is preferred. As a side not to this story I flew Delta in July 2001 to Costa Rica.I had a 4 inch folding knife in my pocket that went into the change and key pan on the luggage belt. There was a 5 inch fixed blade in a sheath and a 7 inch U.S Air Force Spec Op knife with sheath. Inside my carry on. They all passed through security at the St Louis airport as well a Harts field in Atlanta. No questions asked. Same thing coming back into the United States 10 days later. September 11 2001 forever changed that dynamic. For good or bad will always be debated.

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  11. Thats a pretty good deal, Magpul just released their American Hunter stock for the Rugers for not much over $50 less, and the Magpul stock isn’t a modular chassis design.

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  12. They’re not pissed off that you did something wrong, they’re pissed off that we’re on to them. They have to come down on it or they start losing a game they’ve been winning.

    It’s prohibition by other means. It’s designed to label people bad and wrong. It’s “Sovereignty By Other Means” imposing NY preferences on people who don’t live there (and can’t vote for the government there)

    Maybe if NY State wants to restrict use, ownership and commerce (in guns) in their state, they should do that, rather than trying to restrict that stuff in other states. (Of if Tiny Dancer can’t dial back the carnage done with guns in his city, he maybe should remove guns … in his city. Whining about gun sales in places that don’t have a violence problem is both a distraction and a power-grab … on the backs of dead children.)

    Of course the trolls come out on this one. (Hi!)

    Here’s the thing. You’re allowed to despise the gun laws in NY State. Indeed, you’re allowed to ignore, outside NY State, the gun laws in NY State. They managed to get their preferences extended not just to parts of NY State that disagree, but now across state lines. If you complain about getting caught by that, people might notice.

    This isn’t about the particular policy, although they don’t like guns, and hate you. They need to shut up any push-back long enough for pushing their laws into other states by other means to become normal.

    Here’s how it works…
    This round the scam is “safety”, and they’re pushing a kind of enforcement. Earlier it was “oil crisis” and “environment”, pushing industrial policy. Right now, the perennially verklempt are wound up at the federal threat to restrict funding to “sanctuary cities” to get city and state policies in line with what the feds want, without the jurisdiction. Guess who started that scam (in modern times?) President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter, who, stopped from mandating federal speed limits (“For the children!”) came up with simply withholding federal highway funding unless states reduced the speed limit to what he wanted. It’s been a way of inflicting federal control by other means ever since; with no complaints from the right-thinking people until it hit an issue they care about.

    “We have a problem, so you need to do enforcement to solve it.” is another one of these work-arounds. They’re pissed because if you point it out, people may decide they don’t like it, before they take over everything they want that way.

    #tinfoilhat

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  13. I wouldn’t worry, the useless congressional republicans could’t pass their way out of a paper bag. This will never go through, just a desperate attemt to save them a drubbing in 2018

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  14. That grip doesn’t seem like something I would want. it’s at 90 degrees to gun. Seems like a really dumb idea on an otherwise decent product.

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  15. Well mark me down as an asshole too . How many other employees in this time frame got caught twice with prohibited items ? Oh it’s ok his mom packed his lunch first go round , and who doesn’t walk around with a 15 round mag in their pocket and not know its there .

    Sorry he goes through these check points daily , it’s not like he showed up,one day and surprise !

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  16. Georgia is a right to work state so your boss can fire your for any reason or none. Plenty of jobs out there in the Atlanta area now. Just ignore the jerks who have no empathy, there are always folks happy to tell you that warm wet feeling on your back is just rain.

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  17. The Latest Update From Gun Owners of America. — The Fix NICS attachments to HR – 38 are called the ” Traffic Ticket Gun Ban ” …. ( now we see why Shumer – Finestine – Pelosi and Murphy all love this bill )….. minor issues will result in REVOKING your Rights.

    My License and car registration was suspended for a speeding ticket issued to someone with a similar name , Police issued me a ticket and said ….
    ” Sucks To Be You , you’ll have to go to court and PROVE YOUR INNOCENCE ! ”
    GOA says this already happens way to often , and ” Fix NICS ” will only make it WORSE.

    *** Pass a clean CCW bill , like S – 446.

    https://gunowners.org/pass-reciprocity-not-gun-control.htm

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  18. You should’ve just claimed you were a gay transsexual transracial and that magazine was a required part of your daily rectal stimulus. No, I’m not joking. Threaten to sue over that and they’ll drop it like a hot sack of shit. We gotta use the liberals tactics against them here people.

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  19. Check out the comments, it’s running about 90 percent “it’s about damn time”…

    “NY and NJ have only themselves to blame. They insisted on prosecuting people traveling through their states to the point where people who missed connecting flights through a canceled flight and were handed their checked bags were arrested when they went to check back in the next day. FOPA should have prevented such prosecutions, but the non-free states persisted in destroying the lives of the law-abiding.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-12-06/congress-moves-backward-on-gun-safety

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  20. This stuff always puzzles me. When you become so unaware that you have guns and parts, when you become so unaware that you have a gun on you, when you become so unaware that you have gun parts in your bags or pockets, when you are not sensitive at all times to the presence of guns and gun parts on your person (or in your bag), when you become comfortable using the same bag for storing/carrying guns and parts and for travel, are you not becoming an irresponsible gun owner? Should there not be consequences for not being hyper aware of what you are doing?

    Not being a “gun guy”, I cannot enter a state of mind that can rationalize the idea that someone “forgot” they had a gun in their carry-on luggage, or “forgot” they had bullets (or whatever) in their pants pockets. But to be certain to not fall into such habits, maybe it is good that I do not have a gun that can be easily concealed, or “fogotten”.

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  21. Looks like the concept of the gun works as intended but it could use a bit more in the refining aspects. Thats the difference between a startup and an established manufacturer.

    I was totally on board with this thing until you got to the accuracy. Accuracy should always be a priority. and those groups suck for a modern pistol. My favorite gun is my 226. Yeah its heavy and has a mile high bore axis, but it goes boom every time and it hits where I point it. I don’t think you’ll ever hear anyone say their favorite gun is the one that looks cool but shoots 6″ off (heirlooms not included).

    Hopefully they are being truthful and this is a wacky one off, but what are the chances that the one bad one just happened to make it to this review?

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  22. I’ve been saying this for a while.

    If they’ve paid their debt to society, they should all of their rights back or they clearly cannot be trusted and should still be in prison. Especially for bullshit like simple possession of the wrong piece of salad.

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  23. I do not believe folks from constitutional carry states(a good thing !) would be allowed to carry elsewhere by virtue of that alone. Most of these states still offer optional carry permits for the express purpose of allowing reciprocity agreements with other states. Here in VA we honor everyone else’s permits, but our 2 Dem Senators who supposedly represent us, will vote against VA permits being honored in all the others(think I’m good in 38 states between the VA and Utah paoerwork).

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  24. A majority vote for national reciprocity is certain, but I don’t see any way for the yeas to hit 60.

    Thirteen Democrats voted yes in 2013, but only seven remain in office and four of them are unlikely to vote yes this time.

    Mark Kirk, the RINO from Illinois who voted no in 2013, is gone, and Tammy Duckworth (who isn’t worth a duck or any other poultry) is far worse.

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  25. Well, I think the NRA position was genius, but I don’t think it actually gives up something.

    I don’t think the anti’s and the foaming classes (but, I repeat myself) are gonna get a bump-fire ban; certainly not the “accelerating mechanism” language they in their earlier try (that would effectively ban flintlocks). Possibly the wording of the “machine gun” statute gets refined — when they’re over-reaching, making it more precise is always good.

    Politically, making the BATF or Feinstein make their case for any restriction makes them presume the right if they respond at all. Plus, all the conundrums in JP’s article. My favorite is that arguing “We need a law.” supports Steve Bannon’s position on the administrative state. You don’t have to agree with the position, or the messenger to find that irony delicious. And the “We don’t need no frakking justification.” folks out themselves if they speak up.

    I went on about the discrediting that attaches to the BATF under the article “DOJ, ATF To Reconsider Whether to Ban Bump Fire Stocks.” This political depositioning makes it a two-fer. That’s genius, twice, so who are these people and what did they do with the NRA?

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  26. This actually looks pretty cool.

    I already adopted 300BLK as my “in close” cartridge for AR pattern weapons and this looks like a damn fine cartridge to take the lightweight AR platform and extend it out to seriously long distances.

    I will need to cross my fingers that BCM starts building uppers with this barrel and then I will probably pick one up.

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  27. Any human being who threatens death to another human being because the other human being is a hunter is severely mentally ill and needs to not be allowed weapons, the vote, or unsupervised time.

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  28. I wonder if this .224 Valkyrie is going to end up being used in that new light machine gun the military wants that holds accuracy out to 1000 yards.

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  29. America simply cannot be compared to most other countries in the world, in anyway. When you account for our physical size, cultural make up, and history, there’s very few comparisons. The only ones that come close are Russia, China, and Brazil. And out of those, Brazil is the closest relative. America is a massive multicultural empire, and up until now, is the only country of its size and power to remain united through cultural tensions. Similar multicultural empires such as Ottoman Turkey, Austria Hungary, and Rome, all violently divided along ethnic lines. America may or may not face a similar future. But the point is, several cultures living in one area causes violence. Always have and always will. When you compare countries more like ours in make up, the good ol US of A starts to look pretty damned good.

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  30. Can’t help but wonder. How many are saying never again Springfield, but still by GM products after GM took our tax money and still haven’t paid it back.

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  31. More revolving door justice, the ‘male’ has previous ‘history’ and of course got away with beating a previous girlfriend. I would love to see the stats on violence carried out by perps who have previous criminal history and should have been in jail. The justice system should have some sort of liability in these cases.

    “One of the suspects, Brown, was also wanted for an outstanding $20,000 bench warrant for failing to report to his probation officer in October for a drug test, according to KHON.

    He was also arrested in June this year for beating his then-girlfriend, which was dismissed two months later.”

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