"HOUSTON (KTRK) -- TSA checkpoints at airports are at the front lines of preventing terrorism. When you go through security, you expect to be scanned and searched. And you expect TSA to prevent contraband from getting on planes, but as we've learned, that doesn't always happen.
Houston businessman Farid Seif says it was a startling discovery. He didn't intend to bring a loaded gun on a flight out of Houston and can't understand how TSA screeners didn't catch it.
Nearing the height of last year's Christmas travel season, TSA screeners at Bush Intercontinental Airport somehow missed a loaded pistol, one that was tucked away inside a carry-on computer bag.
"I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif said. "It's a .40 caliber gun."
Seif says it was an accident which he didn't realize until he arrived at his destination. He says he carries the glock for protection but forgot to remove it from his bag. He reported the incident as soon as he landed, shocked at the security lapse.
"There's nothing else in there. How can you miss it? You cannot miss it," Seif said."
ABC Affiliate KTRK - Man boards plane at IAH with loaded gun in carry-on
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Conor Friedersdorf at the Daily Dish writes pretty much exactly what I'm thinking:
"As the guardians of America's airports put travelers through naked body scans and invasive patdowns, ponder [the story above]"
"Two thoughts. 1) Perhaps if this sort of thing wasn't covered up, and we heard about it everytime TSA staffers failed to catch weapons, the resulting embarassment would improve their performance more than whatever method now being used. 2) I've got to submit to naked scanners and pat downs when they can't even catch weapons going through the x-ray scanners they've already got?
My faith in the ability of government to decide what should be kept secret and what shouldn't is now even closer to nil."
Andrew Sullivan - Daily Dish - The Secrets TSA Keeps
My last trip I went through 5 airports in Canada and Mexico, 4 times through security, before anyone noticed that I had supposedly restricted screwdriver bits in my camera bag carried on, next to my opened bottle of hand sanitizer gel. They took the bits, and never noticed the gel.
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