Loaded gun slips through airport security

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A passenger who went through an airport security checkpoint -- before remembering that he had a loaded gun -- is facing charges after going back to report his error, authorities said.

Gregory Scott Hinkle, 53, of Davis, West Virginia, went through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport about 7:30 a.m. Sunday, an airport spokeswoman said.

After the traveler evidently recalled having the gun, he returned to the checkpoint and disclosed the weapon, authorities said.

The TSA contacted airport police, who charged the man with possessing or transporting a firearm into an air carrier terminal where prohibited, a misdemeanor, and released him. He is scheduled to appear April 2 in Arlington County, Virginia, General District Court.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/23/airport.gun/index.html

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Thank goodness this didn't happen at an *important* airport!

[onehandle]

1. Loaded cat slips through airport security

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. - Some kitty math: How many lives did little tabby Gracie Mae use up when she crawled into her owner's suitcase, went through an airport X-ray machine, got loaded onto a plane, thrown onto a baggage belt and mistakenly picked up by a stranger far from home?
"She's got to be at four or five now," Seth Levy said after his 10-month-old pet was returned Sunday night by a kind stranger who went home to Fort Worth, Texas, with the wrong bag and Gracie inside to boot.

The last time Levy's wife, Kelly, saw Gracie was before she took her husband to the airport. The 24-year-old went back to her house in Palm Beach Gardens late Friday to find the bottom step, where Gracie would usually be waiting, empty.

She tore the house apart looking for the cat, who had been spayed just days before. She and her dad took out bathroom tiles and part of a cabinet to check a crawl space and papered the neighborhood with "lost cat" signs.

Then she got a phone call.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_fe_st/odd_missing_cat

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. I thought of that when I saw this too

For all the inconveniences we endure and all the money that goes to the cause, it's amazing the things that can get past TSA.

[Thor_MN]

2. Wow, the ahole at national that bitched me out for not taking off my belt must have been off duty.

Went through there last summer and the little pr!ck was getting his jollies by yelling at me to hurry up and do this and do that. I wanted to tell him what he could do with his rent-a-cop badge and attitude, but figured it wouldn't help anything. I did ask me to stop throwing my laptop computer around.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. That's nothing

Punk-ass George Bush regularly gets into Air Force One.

--p!

[water]

4. Charging him with a crime is incredible!

It will only discourage disclosure and cause more panic if it's discovered mid-flight.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Exactly right.

The passenger tried to correct an oversight and got busted. Thank you, TSA.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. I doubt they had much choice. It's up to the judge to decide.

I would think that leniency would be the normal reaction of most judges.

[happyslug]

12. There are Fifth Amendments problems here.

As a person who had a a gun, it was illegal for him to have it one him in the Airport, but since HE HAD GONE THROUGH SECURITY, no one would ever found out UNLESS HE TOLD THEM. HE knew he was in violation but the only way he could correct that problem was to TELL SECURITY. Thus he has to TELL the Police he had committed a crime. That is a violation of the right NOT to incriminate oneself. Thus he either had the right NOT to tell Security OR telling security can NOT be incriminating. Either way protects people's fifth amendment rights.

The Right NOT to incriminate oneself is absolute. The only way the Government can FORCE you to Tell them about illegal activity is if such Revelation is NOT criminal (Thus for example it can NOT be made illegal a Felon to have a gun, unless the felon can turn over such weapon to the police WITHOUT VIOLATING THE LAW (Thus most Anti-gun legislation has a provision making it legal for Criminals to turn over any weapon in their possession to the police WITHOUT being charged with violating that law against them having weapons).

I suspect the Judge will dismiss this action on Fifth amendment grounds. Either the law has such a provision permitting such a report WITHOUT liability OR the Judge will rule it unconstitutional if it did not AND find that it does has such an exemption by implication.

[gratuitous]

14. The Fifth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment prohibits compelled testimony. This garbanzo went back and willingly confessed, nobody compelled or coerced his testimony against himself.

I agree with others that a judge will probably look with some lenience on this episode, and especially so if the guy was white and not one of those scary terrorist colors that other people come in.

[nebenaube]

16. and yet

millions of people pee in cups...

[happyslug]

18. That is NOT a voluntary act.

No one is saying, piss in the cup if you took drugs. In fact if you believe you have been given an illegal drug it is legal for you to ask for a test and that test result can NOT be used against you in a criminal action against you (It can be used against the person who slipped you the drug but not the person who said he or she may have ben drugged and wanted tested).

Now private employers can require you to piss in a cup, you have the right to say no, but the employer than has the right to fire you. If you are in the Military (or other government agency) that requires you to take such a test, that is again NOT a voluntary act and thus NOT a fifth amendment issue (The agency must show that the test was random OR universal OR they had probable cause to ask for the tests, unless the Government agency has one of those three things going for them they can NOT use the test results against you). Notice private companies do NOT need to meet any of those three tests, if, as an employee, you refuse, they can fire you (Schools are treated more like private business then Police but even schools do NOT have the right to test people they suspect, but do not have probable cause to suspect, of drug use).

Remember if the Police have probable cause they can test you, Medical test, piss tests, blood test, are NOT actions on the defendant's parts and thus NOT subject to the Fifith amendment. Actions and words ARE.

[happyslug]

17. But if someone went through Security and STILL has his gun how does he depose of it?

Without incriminating himself? That is the problem. Pistols are registered and once found the owner of the gun can be determined within minutes. Thus he could NOT just through it into a trash can WITHOUT incriminating himself. At the same time it is ILLEGAL for him to have it on his body. Thus he is COMMITTING A CRIME WITHOUT ANY WAY TO PREVENT THE CRIME FROM OCCURRING (i.e. no way to get rid of the gun). Thus it is a fifth amendment issue.

In most Gun Control law it si illegal for a felon to even touch a gun, but what happens when it comes into his possession? He really can NOT throw it away, but the ex-felon keeping the gun is a crime in itself thus he can NOT turn it into the Police UNLESS THERE IS SOME-SORT of exception for such actions. The same here, either the court has to find they was a way to turn this weapon in WITHOUT incriminating himself or he had the legal right to hold onto the gun. I do NOT suspect the later is the case, I.e. if you get by security you can keep your gun, I suspect it is legal to turn over the weapon to the Police (As he did here). This is further supported by the fact the Police did NOT arrest him right there and then (It is a FELONY TO DO WHAT HE DID AND POLICE HAVE THE RIGHT TO ARREST HIM AND TAKE HIM TO JAIL). Thus I suspect even Security know it si covered by the Fifth (OR some statute or regulation that reflect the fifth).

You can NOT make something illegal if it is impossible for a person to avoid the illegality. In this situation he is under a compulsion to turn over the weapon for to continue to keep the weapon subjects him to arrest. On the other hand if he turns in the weapon he is revealing he had it and thus subject to arrest. Notice in either case he is subject to arrest. Given that situation it is unconstitutional to require him to turn the weapon over (And thus any requirement he turn in any weapon is also unconstitutional).

Banning items is by its vary nature touches on the Fifth. What happens if someone ends up with an illegal item. How do you encourage them to turn it over to the Police? You can NOT compel them under the Fifth, thus the Government MUST have some sort of amnesty program for such items (Be it drugs, guns or any other illegal item) when such items are turned over to the Police.

[MilesColtrane]

15. People confess and turn themselves into the police for crimes quite often.

"No person...shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself..."

If gun boy pleaded not guilty, and this were to go to trial, then he would not have to testify against himself.

[MadHound]

7. Just one? Pull the other leg!

TSA is truly a joke and its real purpose is to capture data, track movement and make life hell for those who travel. Hence the reason for punishing this man, he showed them up for the incompetent, authoritarian frauds that they are.

[happyslug]

13. No the purpose of TSA is to give the IMPRESSION of Security.

Nothing TSA is doing today would have STOPPED the 9/11 hijackers. Could people today smuggle in simple box cutters? Yes, The amount of metal in them is minimal and if the metal detectors are set low enough to catch them, everyone who has any form of metal zipper or belt buckle will also set off the detectors. In fact if I wanted to smuggle a box cutter on I would wear pants with a metal zipper, and a steel belt buckle so they would set off the alarm (Or in the alternative make a box cutter with a copper or bronze blade, which while inferior blade to steel will NOT set off any metal detector and are good enough for what the 9/11 hijackers did with their box cutters).

The best defense is to accept the fact hijackers will get on the plane and empower the stewardesses with the power to call forth ANY of the passengers to re-take the plane if it was hi-jacked (which by implication means jail time for anyone who REFUSES the order of the Stewardesses if that passenger refuses to do what the Stewardess tells him or her to do). Notice I said Stewardess, the pilots should be in the cockpit with strict orders NOT to leave it for any reasons. Thus the Plane stays under control of the pilots, which leaves the Stewardess the only people in any position to lead any effort to re-take the plane.

Notice I accept fact that hi-jackers can get on a plane and take over the plane. The issue is what to do if that happens. That is the best defense against another 9/11, not this almost useless search for weapons no real hi-jacker will ever try to get on a plane.

[harmonicon]

9. thank god - I feel so much safer now

If only, after going through security, all hijackers would go back and tell authorities of their plans and disclose any weapons they may have on them, we'd all be safer - way to go, TSA! god... TSA is all in my house with disease - which is a bad thing.

[ingac70]

10. Ooops, I forgot I had a loaded pistol!

I regularly forget... :sarcasm:

My smart assed attitude aside, perhaps they could show some leniency since he did tell on himself, but who in the hell really forgets they've got something like that?

[santamargarita]

11. It's NOT Reagan!!! It's Washington National Airport

Name an airport after that DEAD fascist pig - NEVER!

[eppur_se_muova]

22. I still call it Washington Nat'l when I'm making reservations etc.

I don't care how many times the agents, flight attendants, etc. call it Saint Reaganus, I say Washington every time.

Remember, it was named after George Washington, a great President, and it was a disservice to rename it.

[WittyUsername]

19. Argh.. How does this happen?

Let's hope no one actually plans on hijacking some planes anytime soon...

Anyways, it's pretty screwed up this guy is being charged... still though, how does one forget they have a loaded gun on themselves?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. we hired people who couldn't hold down a job at Burger King

to run airport security?

I know somebody who flew from Texas to California and back with his loaded gun undetected. He didn't notice he had it until he got home.

[Turbineguy]

21. They were

unable to charge him with "Embarrassing us by making us look like incompetent assholes".

I'm going to New York next week. Should I bring my assault rifle?

Did I say "Assault Rifle"? I meant "Varmint Plinker". Of course.