It seems to be the view of the current administration and their supporters that anything worth doing is done best by government. All evidence to the contrary. Healthcare. Banking. Student loans. Automobile manufacturing. Mortgage finance. And who could argue with the unqualified success that is the Transportation Security Administration? Between saving full-body naked passenger images for future viewing pleasure to feeling up toddlers and octogenarians, they’ve shown that they’re everything we’ve come to expect from government-delivered ‘services’. And their personnel are apparently every bit as top notch…
Richard Banks III [not pictured above], a TSA employee, arrived for work at Memphis International airport Friday and slid his bag through the scanner. Only one problem. He’d left a pistol in with his skivvies.
The gun was found during a security check at the terminal’s “A” concourse in a bag belonging to TSA employee Richard Banks III. He told airport police that he forgot the handgun, a 9mm Glock 17, was in the bag.
John Greaud, vice president of operations at the airport, said bringing the gun to the airport was not intentional.
And it wasn’t even Take Your Gun to Work Day. How do you not know you’re carrying a gun?
“He had just grabbed a bag and tossed his clothes in it because he needed to change once he got to work and he didn’t realize a gun was in there,” Greaud said.
Does Banks regularly store the gun in the bag at home? Enquiring minds want to know if he has a safe place to store his gun. Or ever uses it if he does.
A report from the Memphis International Airport Police Department says Banks was issued a misdemeanor citation for unlawful possession of a weapon in lieu of being held in custody.
Though Greaud went to great pains to say Banks was treated the same as any passenger would have been, it does make you wonder if they’d have been as lenient with any Tom, Dick or Darius who had the same mishap.
In the mean time wear your IGOTD award proudly, agent Banks. And take it easy on the next person you find who’s accidently left a pocket knife in their carry-on luggage, OK?
[h/t saysuncle.com]