“A luggage ramp crew retrieved the .38-caliber handgun after it tumbled from a duffel bag they were loading onto Alaska Airlines Flight 563 to Portland, Ore,” latimes.com reports. “The owner took a later flight to Portland, and the gun was turned over to police.” And this is news? It is (to the LA Times) and it isn’t (to anyone with an ounce of common sense). Like, wait for it, the TSA . ..
TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said the bag had been screened for explosives and none was found. She also noted that because the firearm was in a checked bag, the passenger would not have had access to it during the flight. Dankers said the TSA screens for firearms stowed in carry-on luggage but that it was not the agency’s responsibility to detect firearms in checked luggage.
So . . . what? So we have to blame someone (other than the firearm’s owner) for the fact that a gun—a loaded gun—almost made it into the hold of an airplane outside of a federally mandated locked container.
I know! Let’s ask the LA Airport Police union rep who’s responsible for this DANGEROUS mistake. I don’t mean he’s responsible, or any of his members. Perish the thought. I mean let’s ask him who is.
“Although representatives of both the TSA and the airline said they were following established policies, Marshall McClain, the president of the union that represents officers in the Los Angeles Airport Police, said the TSA should more thoroughly screen luggage.
“Local law enforcement needs to know that TSA is doing their part,” McClain said.
To be fair, the TSA doesn’t screen checked baggage. McClain knows that right?