OIA airport lines

When you’re headed to get on a plane, having a gun in your carry-on is never a good idea. But exactly how bad an idea it is can really depend on where you do it. The Orlando Sentinel reviewed arrest policies and 2013 arrest records for 15 airports, and found that if you’re caught with a gun in Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, or Atlanta, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be arrested. However, if it’s in Jacksonville, Phoenix, or Denver, it’s equally likely that you’ll walk free. The difference in outcomes is because arrest and prosecution is up to the local law enforcement agencies or state’s attorneys. At Orlando International, 42 of 47 gun-toters were arrested, while at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, only 9 of 45 were. In another contrast to OIA’s policies . . .

at Orlando Sanford airport earlier this year a man found to be carrying a loaded .38-caliber revolver wasn’t arrested, and didn’t even forfeit his gun. The airport held onto his gun and returned it to him when he returned from Ohio. It is worth noting that even those who are not arrested can still face thousands of dollars in federal civil fines.

Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from Clayton County, Georgia, and it’s a short one. Pointe South Elementary was locked down for about 20 minutes due to three students playing with what turned out to be toy guns. First Coast News notes that this is the fifth time in 11 days that a metro Atlanta school has been locked down due to weapons or toy guns, and tells us that Clayton County Schools Police Chief Clarence Cox sent each of the district’s 52,000 students and their parents a recorded phone message reminding them that no weapon of any kind is allowed on school grounds.

I appreciate what she’s doing here, but the delivery creeps me out a bit. Still, her heart’s in the right place, so if you think this would help convince someone you know… [h/t ENDO]

Also, don’t “give them this visual” (0:28), because if they know anything about guns, they’ll know that (1) the chamber is now open on that gun and (2) it’s not loaded.

From the BBC News Magazine: “Nicholas Johnson, a law professor at Fordham University in New York City, says black Americans have a long, positive history with guns. Firearms, he says, helped black Americans escape slavery, defend their homes and fight for their freedom. It was only after the civil rights movement that the public attitude towards guns started to change. He explores the hidden relationship between African Americans and firearms in his book Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms.” There’s a 2.5 minute video at the BBC link above, with the author describing the work in his own voice and words.

Three weeks ago, Burlington, Vermont voters passed three gun control measures: one banning guns in bars and restaurants, one giving police the ability to temporarily confiscate firearms from those involved in domestic disputes, and one requiring gun owners lock up their guns at home. Now the head of a nationwide sheriff’s organization is calling on the law enforcement leaders of Vermont to ignore the new laws. Richard Mack, president of the Constitutional Sheriff’s and Peace Officers Association, said “Sheriffs have a constitutional duty to refuse to comply with such ordinances,” drawing comparisons to the actions of officers in New York and Colorado. Even if they do agree to defy the new laws, it will largely be a symbolic gesture, as the new laws run counter to Vermont’s “Sportsmen’s Bill of Rights,” which prohibits cities and municipalities from passing and enforcing their own gun laws.

Will 18-20″ of solid ice stop a .50 BMG? The guys at Demolition Ranch set out to find out.

The tattoo left on the backside plastic from being smashed into the cinder block is pretty cool. Whoops, guess I gave away the answer.

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39 COMMENTS

  2. Clayton County Schools Police Chief

    Did I read that right? The Clayton County School system has a Police Chief? Man, those are rough schools.

  4. For those of us left with a modicum of intelligence, toy guns are not weapons. And I sit on juries.

    • If you consider airsoft guns ‘toys’- and I do- you’d recognize that they can look identical at any more than very close range. This can have bad consequences.

  5. “The Orlando Sentinel reviewed arrest policies and 2013 arrest records for 15 airports, and found that if you’re caught with a gun in Orlando, Dallas, Chicago, or Atlanta, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be arrested. ”

    I’ve traveled through DFW several time with a firearm. You can have in your luggage and as along declare it and check it with your luggage… Do you mean carrying the gun into the terminal through security without declaring it?

  6. Yeah, blabby. Give away the ending. I’d throw popcorn at you at a theater. Naw, popcorn costs way to much at a theater to waste it.

    • Be careful. He’s in Florida – throwing popcorn can get you shot there… But then again, Matt’s not a retired cop with anger management issues, so you might be okay.

    • I may still do a review on this book for TTAG. Maybe. 70% through the book right now. There have been some good reviews already plus some interviews with the author on YouTube and such, which we linked to on TTAG previously. Not sure I can add anything except maybe pulling in some interesting quotes from the book (I’ve been highlighting things as I read on my Kindle).

      I’d say 1) very interesting reading with LOTS of specific anecdotes about specific people and groups using firearms for great purposes — mostly successfully but also not. 2) it’s really long.

      If I don’t end up writing a book review on here I’ll still make a diorama 😉

  8. Creepy girl is creepy, but also kind of hot and her point is spot on. I give it three thumbs up. I mean, two! Two thumbs up.

  9. Guns do not literally even the playing field. This sentence means that a firearm is being physically used to shovel dirt around until a sporting area has been evened out. I’m not normally a grammar nazi, but c’mon…you can’t just throw ‘literally’ right in front of an idiom and expect to be taken seriously.

    And WTF is up with all these people being arrested for having a loaded weapon at the security checkpoint? How is that a crime? You can’t bring a knife on a plane, but they don’t cuff you if you forget (or intentionally bring) one in your bag. Absolute madness. Just send the person back to the baggage check or public lockers self service mail station taxi stand and let them figure out what to do from there.

    • I think they consider it more reasonable to forget that you have a pocketknife than a glock with you.I happen to agree with that. I think not knowing that you can’t carry a gun on a flight is pretty ridiculous, as is forgetting you have it with you. Sending people back to a locker is basically telling people to go ahead and try to bring their guns since there’s no punishment. Bad idea.

      • (though giving them an opportunity to deal with the issue before going through screening seems reasonable)

        • That is my point. Whether it’s an innocent mistake or intentional isn’t really the point, the point is that we don’t treat people with knives and tools like potential murders if they get too close to an arbitrary line in the sand.

      • I’ve said the same thing before when these kinds of stories are reported. It seems almost impossible to me to “forget” you have a gun on your person or in your bag. I know people can be morons, but I can’t imagine being that careless with my firearms to not be aware of where they are, especially when I’m going to the airport to get on a freakin’ plane.

        Forgetting you have a little Swiss army knife on your keychain, or a pack of razor blades in your bag, I get that. A handgun? Unfathomable levels of idiocy.

        That said, arresting people for it is a pretty severe over-reaction. We haven’t made stupidity a crime in other areas, so why is it a crime in this one isolated scenario?

        • I suppose that someone who had as many different knives, in as many relative sizes, as I do, might be inclined to not know where every single one is at all times.
          I think it’s our current viewpoint on firearms (as a general society) that makes us feel like they’re soooooo dangerous that if we put one down for a even 5 minutes without knowing where it is we’re irresponsible. If we viewed them like the keys to our car, equally as capable of causing mayhem and murder, we’d be better off.

        • Well, I always know where my keys are at all times, too. But I might be a little OCD about that.

  10. 18 months ago I was transiting at Singapore airport and at the entrance to every boarding lounge (security screening was at every lounge) there was a sign showing what items were prohibited from carrying on to a plane and post boxes were available to mail those items home.

    I do like the idea of storage for items until you return.

    • Just curious..were firearms mentioned on the list?

      Singapore has a (mandatory?) death sentence for arms trafficking, and that happens to be defined as possession of TWO or more firearms…yes, two. Although I’ll grant you that carrying 2 pistolas in your carry-on would be pretty hard core. Or it’s an awfully long trip to your friendly neighborhood shooting range.

      Tom

      • Not referencing Singapore specifically, but if one were intending on carrying those firearms at the destination, two certainly wouldn’t be “hardcore”. A primary and a BUG make up a typical EDC set for many.

  11. The VT story just shows that this stupidity just spreads wherever there are cities with people who think they know better about such things. We can’t just surrender states to them or eventually we’ll run out.

  12. Why is Vermont passing gun laws anyway? They have like the lowest crime rate and yet the most lax gun laws. Was there some kind of problem they were trying to solve or were they just bored?

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