127
US woman caught with golden gun in luggage at Sydney airport jailed for a year
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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I hate how this article focuses solely on her stupidly and completely glosses over the glaring failure of TSA to prevent this from happening in the first place. Bottle of water is treated like a WMD, but a pistol? Nah, good to go. 'Murica...
Also, I low-key think she deserves some punishment for having such a tacky gold plated 1911 in the first place...
TSA is disgustingly ineffective at stopping contraband.
Tests regularly show they miss 90% of prohibited items. WHILE consistently misconfiscating things that are allowed.
Literally the movie theater security guard checking for people smuggling in outside food is more effective than the TSA.
Like, I don't even know how you'd be that comically incompetent, at a certain point, I think malice is the only reasonable explanation.
They had me excluded interviewed, to the point of missing a flight, because they found a phillips screwdriver bit (no screw driver) in my back back. Even reminding them that airlines exclusively do not use these screws in anything inside the cabin of importance, had no effect. I totally agree with your "comically incompetent" phrasing.
"Well gee looky here, you seem to be suspiciously well versed in 'aircraft cabin screwdrivery' usage"
Best just taze him.
You're allowed to fly with a gun (in a checked bag), and it doesn't make sense for TSA to enforce a law in America that isn't a law in America. It makes more sense to let them get to Australia, where they've then broken the law, and arrest them there when they get off the plane.
You have to declare it to fly like that in the US, though. So either she did and TSA didn't care, it she didn't and they blundered.
I haven't found a story yet that says whether the firearm was in a checked bag or a carry-on and that really matters. If it was a carry-on then the TSA utterly failed. If it was checked baggage though then she likely followed the correct US process but took a gun to a country that didn't allow it and Australian customs caught it as they were doing the luggage scan.
Despite what you may think it IS possible to legally take firearms to other countries assuming you follow the process and the law at your destination. For example there's gobs of people from all over the world that fly into Colorado, Wyoming, and Alaska every fall with their hunting rifles. It's also possible, although difficult, to bring firearms into Australia.
Ultimately the TSA would have no definitive way to know whether or not she was actually allowed to bring the pistol to Australia, all they can reasonably do is make sure that it's stored safely and out of reach. The rest of it is on the person traveling.
Why would they? It's not their place to enforce Australian law in America
You can fly with a gun in the US as long as it is in a checked bag. As long as it was in her checked bag and stored properly then the TSA has no reason to care. It was on her to know what is and isn't allowed at her destination.
She had to get all the other camos first to unlock the gold so I just assume she earned it.