John, I have to agree. I have a close friend on the police force. Last year she was confronted with a distraught young boy waving around a gun, and from a distance there was no telling if it was real or a toy. My friend found it unnerving, as would airline staff. (I saw the toy...even up close it was very realistic.) Had that toy been used on an aircraft, etc., with today's tensions, who knows how much havoc it would have created? It may seem unfair, or exaggerated, but your point is well taken that the parents weren't using very good judgement. -Mo *************************************************************************** On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, John Kurtzke wrote: > I did jury duty last week (one case or one day of sitting around), and we > had to pass through a security setup. During the orientation, one of the > deputy sheriffs came and told us some of the things out there, and some of > the things they have seized. It was rather sobering. Guns aren't all in > the shape and size of Dirty Harry's magnum. > > Another thing to think about is that it is going to take awhile for the > screeners toget things right, and before that they are going to make > mistakes. But you gotta wonder about parents who let their kids carry toy > guns on airplanes -- remember the signs in airports several years ago > admonishing us not to joke about hijackings, bombs, etc. > > > john > > -- > John F. Kurtzke, C.S.C. > Department of Mathematics > 278 Buckley Center > University of Portland > Portland, OR 97203 > 503-943-7377 > kurtzke@up.edu > >