TSA Rape

Amy Alkon:

Why Did I Have To Go To Pravda To Get My Op-Ed About TSA Rape Published?
I don't understand it. I went to countless mainstream news outlets in America and every one of them refused to publish this -- my op-ed on our eroding civil liberties and what we need to do to stand up for them.

Media outlets that refused to publish this piece include the LA Times, The New York Times, Reuters, CNN.com, The Huffington Post, AOL, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo.com, MSNBC.com, and The Washington Post.

Apparently, only the Russian media cares about discussing civil liberties in America. The Russian newspaper Pravda published the piece about an hour after I sent it to them. (My next try was going to be North Korea, but the furor there following Kim Jun Il's death made that seem like kind of a bad idea.)

The entire piece is published here, on Pravda's website.

As they say, read the whole thing.

Handgun Discharge Pilot Re-Hired

#tsa #guns .
Remember the pilot whose weapon discharged because of a faulty holster the TSA mandated all pilots with handguns use? An arbitrator has ordered US Airways to hire him back.

US Airways said Friday that Jim Langenhahn resumed training on Monday after an 18-month disciplinary suspension.

The airline said as part of the federal arbitrator's decision to reinstate Langenhahn, he will be barred from carrying a gun in the cockpit. After the 2001 terror attacks in which hijackers armed with knives seized four jetliners, pilots lobbied for the right to carry guns in the cockpit.

A 2002 federal law allowed pilots to carry handguns on board if they took part in a program run by the Transportation Security Administration, which includes a week of weapons training.

The item refers to the troubled holsters:

Langenhahn's case was strengthened when the Department of Homeland Security faulted the design of holsters used by pilots who carry their weapons on board planes. The department's inspector general said the design increased the chance of accidental discharge when pilots inserted their guns in the holsters.

The inspector general recommended that the TSA halt use of the locking holster and consider other methods for armed pilots to stow their weapons. The holsters have been in use since 2006.

TSA spokesman Nelson Minerly defended the holster design, saying they have been used "millions of times by thousands of (pilots) without incident."

"The system has been very reliable," he said.

Reliable except when it fails... Who in their right mind puts a metal bar into the trigger guard when designing a handgun holster?

Insanity.

Paul Huebl of CrimeFileNews broke the story of how this holster and weapon were made for mishap back in December 2007 and made a video of how the discharge would happen - and it did.

It's good that the pilot got his job back. It's bad that the TSA is STILL mandating use of this holster made for failure and that the pilot has been scapegoated for the holster failing.

Also See:
Previously:
TSA Holster Increases Chance for Accidental Discha...
Pilot Scapegoated
Did TSA Idiocy Cause Airline Gun Mishap?

Pilot Scapegoated

An Update on Did TSA Idiocy Cause Airline Gun Mishap?: The TSA and US Airways have predictably scapegoated the pilot whose firearm discharged on that US Airways flight last March.

(CNN) -- An US Airways pilot who aviation officials say accidentally fired his handgun in the cockpit during a flight will be fired, a spokesman for a flight officers group said.

The airline has begun the termination process for Capt. James Langenhahn, said Mike Karn, vice president of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Association.

Langenhahn told police that he was stowing his gun in the cockpit of a jet preparing to land in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month when it accidentally fired. The federal Transportation Security Administration is investigating the incident. (from CNN.com)

The item goes on to report that the FFDOA will try to fight the firing according to their spokesman.

The truth of the matter is that the holster the TSA requires Flight Deck Officers (FDO) to use is designed to cause a negligent discharge. The pilot, as related in the CNN item, states he was stowing the weapon when it discharged.

DUH!

Anytime the trigger of a double action weapon encounters an object, as it must in this stupidly designed holster, there is a very real danger of the weapon discharging. My opinion remains that the TSA wishes the FDO program to fail and is doing everything it can to attain that wish.

Also see: Today's Crime File News's entry on the topic.

Our entry from March 31, 2008.

Did TSA Idiocy Cause Airline Gun Mishap?

(h/t The Michael Bane Blog)
Last week this story caused a mini-sensation when a pilot that had qualified through the "Federal Flight Deck Officer" program had an "accidental discharge." Take a look at the weapon and holster the program MANDATES for each FFDO. A LOCK through the TRIGGER GUARD?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I've been carrying a handgun for over 20 years now, and if ANYONE mandated that I should put ANYTHING in the trigger guard of MY weapon I would have immediately looked into seeing that THEY no longer carried a weapon. Anyone who is knowledgeable about firearms knows that the trigger is to NEVER be TOUCHED unless the weapon is to be fired SOON, as in IMMEDIATELY. This holster requires that a metal bar be threaded through the trigger guard of a double action pistol and worn on the hip. I'm FLOORED to think that this is the FIRST time something like this has happened.

And that lock that TSA mandates be threaded through the holster? It isn't even secure. Here's a video on how to pick it in seconds:


Paul Huebl of CrimeFileNews broke the story of how this holster and weapon were made for mishap back in December 2007.

It was only a matter of time before there’d be an accidental, non-negligent discharge of a Federal Flight Deck Officer’s weapon. Saturday a U.S. Airways pilot’s gun discharged on Flight 1536, which left Denver at approximately 6:45am and arrived in Charlotte at approximately 11:51am. The Airbus A319 plane landed safely and thankfully none of the flight’s 124 passengers or five crew members was injured

The insane procedures required by the TSA demands that our pilots to lock and then un-lock their .40 side arms was and is a solid recipe for disaster. Did the TSA deliberately create this bizarre and unconventional Rube Goldberg firearm retention system hoping for this result? The sordid history of the FAA and TSA’s total resistance to the concept of arming pilots to protect Americans is in itself a scandal.

Putting a gun into a holster and then threading a padlock through the trigger and trigger-guard is required every time the pilots enter or leave the cockpit. This kind of silliness has never been forced on any law enforcement or security officers anywhere in the world until now. Before this holster padlock procedure pilots with guns were forced to carry them around in a cumbersome 22 pound vault. The vault caused problems in the confined space of most cockpits.

FFDO pilots need to carry their side arms in conventional concealed holsters and there is no reason for the unnecessary handling of their firearms in the cockpits.

Huebl then made a video explaining how the discharge probably happened.



I have to say, this reeks of someone wanting to sabotage the process of arming pilots. No one can be THIS stupid, can they?

Here's a bit of a clue from the CBS item at the time:

The TSA initially opposed the Flight Deck Officer program to arm and train cockpit personnel. Agency officials worried that introducing a weapon to commercial flights was dangerous and that other security improvements made it unnecessary. Congress and pilots backed the program.

"The TSA has never been real supportive of this program," said Mike Boyd, who runs the Colorado-based aviation consulting firm The Boyd Group. "It's something I think Congress kind of put on them."

Stupidity or deliberate sabotage?