When is a 4 pound rock not a weapon?

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Location
central florida
Let me start off by saying that I do not think the TSA actually makes us any safer. I guess maybe from actual bombs seeing they do the chem test to see if you have explosives, which they did do to my rock,
but i have always been bewildered at the items that are screened out and some of the items that are allowed on.

I put my souvenir rock from Diana's bath NH, a stream with some water falls, ( It was probably against the law to take it in the first place) into my carry on bag and meant to find out if it would be allowed on the plane. I forgot all about it until I saw the TSA agent take it out of my bag. I thought "there goes my rock" and figured I may have to do some explaining. They tested it and re x- rayed my bag and gave it to me to put back in.

Now I don't actually think rocks should be confiscated but it did leave me wondering as I Know some one who lost his 2 inch pocket Knife to the TSA.

Frankly I think I would be much more deadly with the rock. Neither the little knife or the rock would scare me as much as the pointed aluminum knitting needles that were being used in the next row but that just because I saw them used as a very effective weapon in a movie and I have always been afraid of some one ramming something sharp through my eye and into my brain.

Is a 200 plus lb man with a 4 pound rock more dangerous than anyone with a 2 inch pocket knife? Can a knitting needle give you brain damage? I mean man kind has been killing stuff with rocks from way back in the stone age and in "Halloween" (not the movie I was originally thinking of) Jammie lee did take Mike myers down with a knitting needle and that was against a possessed lunatic.
 
I'll be surprised if the mods let this thread stay up very long.
But, my tuppence is that any item can be weapon. Depends on the intent of the person holding it.
Never try to understand TSA. Can't be done.
 
It has all fix me on commercial flying. I refuse to do it, much to my wife's sadness. I don't like being herded around like a sheep, poked, prodded, frisked, and have innocent items taken away. On top of that I think it is just plan uncomfortable and boring. It may all be necessary, I don't know, but I don't have to travel that way.
 
I'll be surprised if the mods let this thread stay up very long...

Why? It's not (yet) political, religious, or off-color. :dunno: One can discuss a government agency without being political.

The TSA is little more than Security Theatre. And Keith, I agree with you...in a fight I'd much rather have a 4 pound rock than a 2" pocket knife.
 
One could use a laptop with more deadly results as it has sharp corners, and they allowed on planes. A credit card can be used to severe your throat. A martial arts expert can kill you in a wink. Basically it all ends in presuming that anybody can be a terrorist. Why? well... when there have been cases of drugs or other items being smuggled inside of a baby's diaper one has to think that criminals are not stupid at all, besides a fearfull society is more tame.

Due to my job I travel a lot, and for two times I have gone unadvertedly through the safety filter carrying a razor knife in my handluggage. I didn't remember I had it there, but they didn't see it either so...:dunno:
 
I'll be surprised if the mods let this thread stay up very long.
But, my tuppence is that any item can be weapon. Depends on the intent of the person holding it.
Never try to understand TSA. Can't be done.

Is this a banned topic? I didn't know. I just thought it was interesting. guess because it happened to me. maybe not so much for others
 
It has all fix me on commercial flying. I refuse to do it, much to my wife's sadness. I don't like being herded around like a sheep, poked, prodded, frisked, and have innocent items taken away. On top of that I think it is just plan uncomfortable and boring. It may all be necessary, I don't know, but I don't have to travel that way.

You have an excellent point there and I mentioned going through orlando security on the way up that this might be what cows feel like at the stock yard.
 
Is this a banned topic?

No, don't see any polotiks.

It's funny what they pick out, have lost a couple of my smallest knifes and some nail clippers over the past few years. My BIL had gone through the TSA with a loaded glock magazine still in his carry-on. Luckily he drove back with some co-workers rather than flying, but found the magazine after he got back.
 
i can definitely vouch for darrens story on the glock mag i saw the guy that done it and he was amazed that it went threw... they must screen out something but i think the bad guys can be more clever than they are sometimes without to much trouble.. on the flip side what if they didnt check at all? then where would we be..i personally think the good gouys should be able to carry weapons to protect the rest that dont from the bad guys.
 
Is this a banned topic? I didn't know. I just thought it was interesting. guess because it happened to me. maybe not so much for others

As Darren said, as long as it's not political, religious, or foul-mouthed, there's nothing wrong with bringing it up here. :thumb:

I agree with you about it being interesting. I've had an affinity for airport operations since the 1980s, when I spent a few years working as a construction inspector at the Albuquerque airport. I had access to everywhere except the runways, so I got to see a lot that the public doesn't see. Of course, things have changed a lot in regard to security since 9/11, but I also have stayed pretty up to date on how things work. (My brother-in-law is the Aviation Director for the City of Albuquerque - he's in charge of both airports in town - and I get to hear all sorts of inside info.)
 
No, but it has the potential for going wild directions very quickly.

But unless/until it does, it's fine. ;)

And quite honestly, I don't see it happening. There is nothing political about it. The TSA is pretty universally disliked by people of all stripes.
 
I kind of like the TSA. While most know they are some what a joke, they are a line of defense. I have been through every type of screening and never felt abused or violated. From what I hear, flying in or out of Israel, is real security. Them boys play for keeps.
 
I really like the way they handled me. I worked on the AirCraft and ran all over the airport all night long. I had to go through a back round check to be able to do that. There was no place I could not go or Aircraft I could not get on.
But let me fly out on a flight in the morning or anywhere else on one of our AC and I have to go through the pat down every time. :huh:
I find TSA to be a big joke the bad guys will figure away around them when they want.
 
Steve, I agree the TSA is a line of defense, but I'm not convinced they are much (if any) better than the security operations that were in place before 9/11. I do know they cost us a lot more money, though. Sure, the TSA has collected truckloads of dangerous (or potentially dangerous) things, but the airline-provided security prior to 9/11 did the same thing. (I remember in the late 1980s the Chief of Airport Police in ABQ had a block of C-4 on his desk that had been confiscated back then.) But for all their effort and high tech contraptions, the TSA still misses a lot of potentially dangerous things (rocks, Glock magazines, the shoe and underwear bombers, etc.) while still insisting on patting down 6-year-old boys and wheelchair-bound grandmas.
 
the TSA still misses a lot of potentially dangerous things (rocks, Glock magazines, the shoe and underwear bombers, etc.) while still insisting on patting down 6-year-old boys and wheelchair-bound grandmas.
After we returned from the Hawaiian vacation my son and our daughter-in-law treated us to several years ago, I was unpacking and found a large knife in the bottom of my carry on bag. :eek: I had forgotten it was in there and carried it all the way from home, through numerous searches and back without it being discovered. But I took off my shoes every time.:rolleyes:
 
Once on a return flight from Philadelphia, I found that I had forgotten to put my Swiss Army knife in my checked baggage. I was already waiting in line for the security check, and I didn't want to lose my $55 tool. When I got to the place where we put everything into the trays, I palmed the knife, dropped it into the tray, poured all my considerable amount of change around and over it, and went through. On the other side, I palmed the knife again into my pocket, picked up my belongings and boarded the plane.

Not recommended, but it says something about airport security.
 
One of the last times I flew out of Burbank, I had forgotten I had a Leatherman style knife in my carry-on bag. It was spotted in the X-ray, but a genuinely helpful TSA agent directed me to a "Mail it Home" drop box nearby. She couldn't hand me the knife, since we were in the secure area, but she carried it to the drop box and gave it back to me there. Cost me about $10 or $12 to mail the knife back home, but it beat replacing it for $60+.

The "Mail it Home" company was based out of Texas. Instead of going the 8 miles from the airport to my house, the knife went from Burbank to Dallas before heading to my house.
 
I have donated more pocket knives to the TSA's Christmas Party auction than I care to count but....in Bloomington, IL airport....they have a box at the security line. You place your pocket knife in a airport supplied padded envelope and fill out the address. The airport pays the postage and mails it to you.
 
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