“Israeli carry” means carrying your gun with an empty chamber. The name dates back to the beginning of the Jewish state, when Israelis adopted the method due to the farrago of firearms available, many of which were not drop-safe. Not to add an extra step to inhibit bad guys from using a stolen gun on its owner. As most gun gurus will tell you . . .
Israeli carry is a bad idea. Holstering a gun without a round in the chamber adds an extra step to the presentation process that doesn’t need adding, and can get you killed. All modern handguns are drop safe. And racking a gun under duress — a two-handed process — is an invitation to Mr. Murphy.
And yet the TSA blog for September 9th – 15th reveals that the nation’s premier security theater organization . . .
discovered 68 firearms this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Of the 68 firearms discovered, 60 were loaded and 10 had a round chambered. All of the firearms pictured (above) were discovered in the last week.
Is that sample representative of the average Joe’s carry condition? No se. But it’s worrying. Meanwhile, please don’t get to thinking that the TSA are a bunch of overweight, unarmed, blue-shirted, heartless, gun-grabbing goons (perish the thought). They’re friendly!
Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the line is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as high as $11,000.
This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions; that’s for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.
And still faced the permanent loss of their gun rights, depending on what state they were in when they were asked to step to one side. Stupid people doing stupid things in a stupid place, to be sure. But gun rights gone? That ain’t right. Yes?