Airport screeners find 75 guns per month

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | November 25, 2004 | Audrey Hudson

[neverdem]

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The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

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Airport screeners find 75 guns per month

By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 25, 2004

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Traveling for the holidays? Have everything you need? Razor? Toothbrush? Handgun? Ammunition?

    Homeland Security officials say that even now, three years after the September 11 terrorist attacks prompted new security measures at airports, passengers continue to show up at the terminals carrying guns and bullets.

    Airport screeners find 2,000 bullets and 75 guns per month on passengers or in carry-on bags, said Mark Hatfield, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). At 450 airports across the country, an average of two guns per day are discovered.

    "The numbers are going up," Mr. Hatfield said.

    Nearly every case is accidental -- hunters forget to take ammo out of coat pockets and sportsmen forget to take guns out of bags after target practice or a trip to the skeet range, he said.

    A 79-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday at Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida after a single-shot Colt Derringer and seven bullets were found in her tote bag.

    The woman said she had placed the gun in a hollowed-out book in the bag months ago and had forgotten about it. She faces a penalty of up to five years in prison.

    "That underscores the importance of the need to screen everyone," TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said. "This continues to be a significant problem at checkpoints across the country."

    The National Rifle Association (NRA) is teaming up with the TSA on a public service campaign to remind its members to include guns and bullets in last-minute...

[neverdem]

There still dragging their butts about arming the pilots, last that I heard.

[DTaggart]

reminds me of the time i was driving into the US from Mexico and a narctics dog found an ancient bag of marijuana that had been in a side pocket of my bag for at least 7 years.

[steplock]

politicians, lawyers, and leftist actors all are released ASAP when they are caught with guns, knoves, drugs, etc.

The ordinary citizen? Heaven help you because the law is the one who will trash your rights! You are NOT 'equal enough' to be allowed any.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever fly.

[TERMINATTOR]

Americans understand how to be safe and secure, even if government officials won't recognize their right to be.

Molon Labe!

[a_screen_name]

I wonder how many per month get missed ...

[lodwick]

Yep.

Great 'toon.

Of course, it was this administration that stopped the pilots from carrying.

Stay safe, stay armed.

[prophetic]

my big questions are:

1. What happens to the GUNS and ammo found? Will they be returned to the owner?

2. What happens to the people? Will it automatically take away their constitutional rights to keep and bears guns and will they automatically be branded a felon for life?

[MineralMan]

Looks like a circular firing squad to me. I can think of a couple better ways to draw that.

[Imaverygooddriver]

And just think; If you ever get in trouble, these people are considered for a jury of your peers. "Whut?? Yah mean guns aren`t allowed on an airuhplaaayne? Noo wayyy!"

[Shryke]

It's a funny cartoon, but let me ask you to evaluate a scenario. Let's say everyone was allowed to bring firearms on the plane. Two terrorists also bring ther guns on the plane, with the intent of crashing the plane. Terrorists brandish weapons, citizens respond, gunfight ensues. What do you think the odds are of that plane continuing to fly?

[Blue Collar Christian]

75 guns a month as people make an extra effort to NOT have them in their carry on bags. So...wouldn't that translate to at least 75 attempted crimes with guns on airliners per month pre 9-11? After all, having guns is what makes people commit crimes.

[CGASMIA68]

WRONG

[ArrogantBustard]

What do you think the odds are of that plane continuing to fly?

Depends ... is it a Boeing, or an Airbus?

[stm]

What do you think the odds are of that plane continuing to fly?"

At altitude? Not much. The first round to penetrate the fuselage would probably cause an explosive decompression that would not only suck people out the hole, it could cause enough damage to bring about catastrophic failure of the fuselage.

Guns on an airplane are a very bad idea, regardless of who is holding them.

[mvpel]

Airplanes have myriad redundant systems, and the chances of a bullet hitting a critical point are slim.

The systems that maintain cabin pressure are run from bleed air from the jet engines, and typically operate at a small percentage of their capacity. A few holes in the fuselage would just cause an air valve to open slightly wider.

Also, it would be sensible for an armed-passenger airline to request that their passengers carry only frangible rounds, incapable of penetrating the fuselage, and offer an assortment of such ammunition at wildly inflated prices (like the little bottles of liquor) for those who forgot to bring it.

[Poohbah]

Terrorists brandish weapons, citizens respond, gunfight ensues.

Terrorists know who bad guys are; citizenry doesn't, causing multiple blue-on-blue engagements.

[ArrogantBustard]

Bwahahahahahaha!!!!

Only if the aircraft in question is being flown by Miss Pussy Galore, and has Bond, James Bond on board ....

[MplsSteve]

Remember that scene in "US Marshals" when that convict puts together a gun in the toilet and tries to off Wesley Snipes?

I imagine explosive decompression would probably be something like that.

[mvpel]

There's a gulf between the movies, "probably," and actual facts, my friend.

Boeing Country: Guns in jets: Don't believe movie image

Jetliner cabins are pressurized. The air inside is compressed to the same density as air at 8,000 feet of altitude. Airliner fuselages at 30,000 feet frequently are compared by the press to inflated balloons. The implication is if you puncture it, it will blow.

That's plain wrong. First, the difference in pressure between the inside and outside air at 40,000 feet is 8.6 pounds per square inch, and the cabin wall is tested to withstand 18.2 pounds, more than twice as much. Second, airliner fuselages are not airtight -- they leak air all the time.

Maintenance people told me that in the days when smoking was allowed, you could find leaks in the fuselage simply by noting the starting point of the brown streaks of cigarette tar.

One engineer told me that Boeing pressurizes each new plane to look for and seal leaks. If the plane passes this ``low blow'' test, it's subjected to a ``high blow'' test at even higher pressure to proof the fuselage for pressure changes.

During the tests, assembly workers outside feel for leaks. When they find one, workers inside apply a sealant glue that is sucked into the leak and seals it. But here's the key point, he said: They don't necessarily have to find all leaks; they just have to find enough.

The cabin atmosphere is continuously pressurized using air from the engines' compressor stages, cooled and mixed with cabin air. The pressure is controlled automatically. If it needs to be increased, more is drawn from the engine. If it needs to be decreased, an outlet valve opens to draw out cabin pressure.

And -- talk about holes in the fuselage -- a retired airline captain told me that the outlet pipe may be 15 inches in diameter, though it's rarely opened fully.

In a twin-engine plane, there are two sources for the compressed ``bleed air,'' and with that air at 40 pounds per square inch, the engines are capable of supplying far more air than they ordinarily have to.

So if a small hole -- say bullet-sized -- opened in the fuselage, the air conditioning packs would supply more bleed air, easily keeping up with the air loss. ``All you'd have is a whistling noise in the cabin,'' a structural repair specialist said It would be no worse than when you open the lavatory sink drain or flush the vacuum toilet.

The oxygen masks, which drop from the ceiling automatically when the cabin air pressure drops below about 12,000 feet, wouldn't even deploy.

But wouldn't the air rushing out open the bullet hole further?

Only in the movies, the structural guy indicated. All jetliners incorporate ``tear straps'' in the fuselage wall. If a hairline crack or bullet hole opened in the skin and started to grow, it couldn't progress far before it reached one of these reinforced points and turned, making what he called a ``controlled flap.''

OK. But what if the slipstream catches a projecting piece of the plane's skin torn out by a bullet? Wouldn't that pull more metal away?

Possibly, but again, not as it does in the movies. A Boeing engineer told me that at 400 knots, the air passing over the plane exerts only 4.11 pounds of pressure per square inch. At 450 knots, it's 5.33 pounds. So if a bullet opened a 4-square-inch projection outside, the slipstream would exert about 21 pounds of pull on it.

``I have no problem at all ... If you shot 50 holes in the fuselage, structurally it would be no problem at all,'' the structural expert said.