Commie :) BAHA ACUNER - CFI,CFII,MEI www.bahadiracuner.com www.acuwings.com -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Nick Laflamme Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 1:22 PM To: AIRLINE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Teddy Bears, Guns, and Airport Security: An Expose' >WASHINGTON (CNN) --Screeners at a passenger checkpoint at the Orlando >International Airport last Friday found a loaded handgun hidden inside a >stuffed teddy bear belonging to a 10-year-old boy, the Transportation >Security Administration has told CNN. > >The boy was part of a family of five that had been on vacation in Orlando >and was returning home to Ohio, the TSA said. > >"The family reported it had been given to the child at a hotel in Orlando >two days earlier," TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said. I'm sorry, but this doesn't pass the smell test. A 10-year-old with a teddy bear? That a stranger gave him? That just happens to have a stolen gun in it? How about we try this instead: "Honey, how do I get this neat new gun back to Ohio if we're flying?" "Gee, I don't know. Maybe we can smuggle it back, maybe in a stuffed teddy bear we give Junior. The guards wouldn't hassle a 10-year-old's stuffed bear, would they? I mean, he doesn't look like a terrorist at all! We'll just tell Junior that if he's busted, he's to say that a stranger gave him the bear." >"We are critized a lot for screening grannies and babies: 'Why are they >checking this? My two-year old isn't a terrorist.' This underscores the >need to screen everyone and everything," said Johnson. I'd say so, but I'm one of them whacko leftists, so what do I know? :-) >Federal screeners have made two other catches recently. In Hartford, >Connecticut, screeners stopped a man who had slipped a knife down the back >of a six-year-old child's shirt to try to slip it past security, Johnson said. > >Also at that airport, screeners stopped a 67-year-old man who had hollowed >out his prosthetic leg to conceal a nine-inch knife in a scabbard. > >Both were arrested, Johnson said. > >"These sorts of things make the point that we need to screen everything," he >said. "We can't allow terrorists any opportunity." Even though these three incidents aren't directly related to terrorist threats, they reinforce my belief that no one should be immune to screening.