i did a really dumb thing , how much is it gonna cost me

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Okay, back on topic. If I were you, senorlinc, I would go get my lawyer, or find the best lawyer suited for your needs. If they wrote this up as an incident, you will surely get some legal responses soon.

If you get any summons or anything, make sure you have an effective defense. Also, if you are a member of the NRA, you will be able to have an edge in defense. NRA should be able to provide considerable support for citizens who are always on the right side of the law, but happen to run into accidental trouble.
 
I doubt you'll get anything more than a letter at this point, however you sir have probably been red-flagged for the rest of your flying days. If you fly a lot, like me, then it will suck.
A buddy of mine was caught up in something very similar and needless to say he has never just went through security like the rest of the people. He always gets a little extra "attention".
 
This has happened to me as well.... well kind of i found the goods before returning home.

I went from Indy to San Diego for business and checked my bag and had my CPU bag with me. Well I made it through the check point and got to my hotel and was looking in my bag. Well I found my box cutter. I did relocate it to my checked bag on my return trip. The TSA folks were better on the return trip they flagged my computer because it was in the same tote as my shoes. Indy let me by with the computer/shoes in the same tote. So much for standards.

I have also been bannded by the g/f not to use any bag that might be taken on a flight. She took some of my empty brass on a trip once. Nothing bad happened to her, thank god.

As long as you didn't get taken to the police station you should be fine.
 
OLD DOG Wrote:
Returning from one of my last military deployments, I got nailed at the airport in Philadelphia ... the helmet bag I was using as a carry-on (that'd been given to me by an EOD buddy) didn't make it past a sniffer ... trace of explosives residue ... I was in uniform w/active duty ID ... Did I take this inconvenience (a half-hour of my life I'll never get back) personally? No. Does this add up to a police state? Opinions vary.


I know the feeling. I used to work for a company that took care of our national Stockpile (of non-conventional weapons). Anyway my backpack would go wherever I went. One day they detect a VERY rare HE along with a not so low level radiological signature....

No less than 6! very big guys come to visit me as I'm going through the line. Thankfully I had a few letters of identification that identified me and my work and the agency I was working for. It went quickly, but boy are these guys a bunch a douchebags when they want to be.... For no need, I might add.
-bix
 
So it looks to me that they are doing their jobs! Well done screeners. I have a range bag that was the perfect size for a trip & it was swabbed. Oops, positive! What a shocker. I told them what I had used it for before, they checked the contents.... No prob, have a nice trip...
 
Back in the pre-9/11 days, I took a small zipper pouch along in my carry-on that I had used to hold a bunch of loose .22LR ammo while plinking in the woods. Went through security with no problem. While waiting for a connecting flight at an airport, much to my surprise I discovered 2 live rounds still in the pouch. I took them into a restroom, forced the bullets out of the casings with my thumb, dumped the powder into a toilet, then wrapped the bullets & casings in paper towels and put them in the trash. Since then I keep shooting-related stuff separate from travel stuff.
 
We have been trying to keep the pebble count below painful levels for quite a long time now. Since 1964, when we began to be treated as untouchables by the liberal left wing.

So in reality, we and the NRA have been frantically working with shovels since 1934, tossing the pebbles off of the hunter pile and on to the 2A pile.

Fixed it for you.

The point about fed meddling is well-founded. People should not be stripped of their ability to defend themselves when they fly. We are required to trust the government for our safety; this never works out well for the people. Armed citizens on the planes would have prevented 9/11. Granted, some lives would have been lost but three planes wouldn't have hit buildings. Jefferson's quote is relevant.
 
I realize these kind of situations are not subject to as much of a "standard" as they could be, and also that flying out of DFW might be different than O'Hare, but I would be surprised if you get anything more than a stern letter of warning. I had a similar incident in Dallas with a fully loaded magazine that made it into my carry on bag- be certain that I felt like an idiot, but it was handled quite professionally by all the myriad of folks I got to talk to that day. I did receive a notice of the incident report made to DHS, and that if it were to happen again I'd be in deeper doo. I have also flown a number of times since and never been flagged for "special" treatment. So, other than chalking this up on your "stupidist things I've done" list, you should be okay. I know stuff gets through that shouldn't, but most of the TSA folks I've encountered have been pleasant and civil. Fortunately, I've not run across one with a messiah complex- yet.
cheers
 
i did and trip to poland last march for springbreak to meet some family and inform them of my grandfathers death

on the way there i noticed i had my s&w assisted opener in my pocket so i tossed it into my checked baggage

then we got to warsaw and they lost my bag.....great

2 days later i was at my great aunts appartment and the airlines and polish police show up with my bag and my knife saying my bag had been held due to them finding my knife in londons heathro and they told me that the next time i would be put in a polish prison as a potential terrorist

they gave me my bag and the next day i went to to the U.S. embassy and told them the story and i had a copy of the police report and had them do an official translation of it so i could understand it better than my aunts broken english and they called up the head of the warsaw police and got every thing fixed and i even got my knife back
 
I was at Front Site last September for a 4 day defensive handgun class. It was very good by the way and I highly recommend it. BUt the reason for this post is to say they went over adn over on the second to last day and then thelast day to turn out your pockets to emptey your range bag to pull all loose ammo out of them. They said that they see people every time a class lets out int he TSA line getting all their stuff searched. Now we showed up for a red eye and it was quiet but we were all dirty dusty and carrying guns. You should think th ticket clerks would know how to deal with it but they did not.

Oh well. TAKE ALL THE AMMO OUT was the word and it was told too us over and over and the guys who drove there left with a bunch of extra rounds too.
 
People should not be stripped of their ability to defend themselves when they fly.

If we allow armed citizens on planes, how do we distinguish the good guys from the bad guys? What if a bad guy carries onto a plane that doesn't happen to have any armed good guys? Do we really want gunfights on airplanes?
 
If we allow armed citizens on planes, how do we distinguish the good guys from the bad guys? What if a bad guy carries onto a plane that doesn't happen to have any armed good guys? Do we really want gunfights on airplanes?

That argument could be made for anywhere that someone doesn't want guns to be carried. After all, is there anywhere we really want gunfights? Assuming the plane has an armored cockpit door, I don't see how a "bad guy" with a gun on a plane is any more of a threat than a "bad guy" with a gun in a school or shopping mall. Better that we all have the right to carry our guns wherever we want, whenever we want, than let the Government choose how, when, and where.
 
That argument could be made for anywhere that someone doesn't want guns to be carried.

Airplanes are different for at least three reasons:
  1. The stakes are much higher than at a shopping mall - hundreds of lives at risk.
  2. Forbidding all firearms on airplanes has been shown to work. Has there ever been a case of a bad guy managing to get a gun through airport security? Disarming the good guys is unfortunate but worth the benefit in this case.
  3. Any discharge of a firearm on a pressurized aircraft is likely to cause decompression.
 
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Airplanes are different for at least two reasons:

1. The stakes are much higher than at a shopping mall - hundreds of lives at risk.
2. Forbidding all firearms on airplanes has been shown to work. Has there ever been a case of a bad guy managing to get a gun through airport security?

Hundreds of lives are at risk if the plane is taken over or if the shooter manages to fire hundreds of bullets before being stopped. Assuming an armored cockpit door he is not going to take over the plane, and I doubt he will walk down the plane's center aisle systematically firing and reloading until every passenger is dead. As far as a bad guy managing to get through airport security, I do not believe one has ever been caught, (doesn't mean some haven't gotten through, though) but airport checkpoints have routinely failed tests of their ability to detect weapons. Link
 
The other night the movie "Bullitt" was on and I was reminded of how easy air travel used to be. Walk up to the gate, present your ticket, board. (The sixties ruined a lot of things.) There was nothing to prevent you from carrying a pistol on board. Pilots who carried mail used to be required to be armed.

For that matter, my father bought his first rifle through the mail at the age of 13.

As times change we forget how much regulation and how many restrictions we now put up with.
 
Could be worse.

...could be...Pie!

"Are you the pie lady?" the agent demanded.
Standing there in orange polka-dot socks, jeans inching down my hips, I nodded soberly. He indicated we'd have more to talk about on the far side of the metal detector.
When my pie emerged, the questions began.
"What kind of pie is that?" He squinted at the pan.
"Apple. With some raspberries."
"Does it have lumps?"
I glanced at the crust, which was black in places and looked like a topographical rendering of the Himalayas. (To think I was trying to impress my boyfriend's parents in Illinois with this thing.)
"Yes, lots of lumps."
"Does it have" -- he paused -- "a gel filling?"
Alarms blared in my brain. They sounded like the familiar kitchen smoke detector. What was he getting at?
"No." I shook my head. "None of that."
...
He told me he was keeping watch for pies with cream and custard fillings. Anything that could be construed as a "gel." He'd already turned away a pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin pie filling, he confided, "has the same consistency as certain plastic explosives."
...
A dozen Thanksgiving pies were confiscated last year at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. They were all donated to the airport's USO lounge, which serves traveling soldiers.
This year, the TSA introduced new holiday food rules to its Web site.
Gravy, cranberry sauce and soup can't go through a security checkpoint, though they can fly in checked baggage. (Squish!) Pies get a pass, but they "might be subject to additional screening."
...
"We don't discriminate from one pie or another. All pies can go through the security checkpoint," Melendez said. "Lemon meringue, pumpkin, apple; it's fine."
He reiterated, however, that pies may require "additional screening."
"You know the swabbing technique to screen for explosives?" he explained. "We could do that on the outside of the pie."
I'd like to see that, I thought.
 
"People should not be stripped of their ability to defend themselves when they fly. "

sorry there is goodly percentage of posters here who i would never want on a plane with me armed if all their bombast and b.s. is actually fleshed out.
 
again, i realise i deserve what i get

I beg to differ, IMO, you don't even deserve the minor inconvenience you went through, and you SURE don't deserve anything worse than that. Now, if you'd slipped up and brought a GUN with you in the bag, maybe. But two rounds of ammo???

I give a big +1 to the authorities that handled your situation. I'd say they could have made it a LOT worse for you if they felt like it.

The poster on Pg 1 sums it up pretty well:
The only "dumb" thing you did was live in a police state. It's all right. You're among fellow "dumb" people.

I do not believe one has ever been caught, (doesn't mean some haven't gotten through, though) but airport checkpoints have routinely failed tests of their ability to detect weapons.

Exactly. I'm willing to bet that there HAVE been cases of guns being missed/overlooked at airport security. It's just apparently not been in the hands of "bad guys," but "somewhat careless and VERY lucky" guys.

And since "bad guys" don't BOTHER with a CCW permit for their firearms, wouldn't they get weeded out in the security check (which should naturally involve showing your carry permit to board a plane with a gun AT HAND) - ?

(and maybe a check to make sure everyone was loaded with frangible or otherwise "airplane safe" ammo would be a good idea too...:what: )

Okay, so safely allowing carry on planes may not be as simple as lifting the restriction. Just never assume that the bad guys are willing to play by "Da Rulez" and plan accordingly.
 
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