Tag Archives for guns.
The discovery of a loaded magazine under 7A forced Frontier to empty the aircraft and bring in police, TSA, DHS, and K-9 units. Frontier now says an armed officer left it behind on the inbound flight, a failure that highlights how often the people trusted to carry guns in the cabin show less discipline than the passengers who face consequences for far smaller mistakes.
She rented the car from Enterprise, drove it for a week, and only then spotted the loaded gun under her 9-year-old’s seat — after already finding an ax beneath the driver’s. It turns out this isn’t even unusual.
Florida resident Liliana Goodson, whose pronouns are they/them, was headed to clown school in Sydney. When they arrived at the airport, they were stopped with a Colt 45 pistol and ammo in their luggage. They were also carrying squirrel feet, rabbit pee, and a cat spine. The gun was 24-karat gold-plated.
A 30-year old American has been arrested after two bullets were found in his backpack prior to boarding a cruise in Turks & Caicos. He now faces 12 years in prison. The Virginia resident is a father of an 18-month old child and says he didn’t realize the bullets were there.
We just heard this story about another American last week. It stems from a change in Turks & Caicos law based on a new court ruling in February, and from TSA’s persistent failure to catch bullets going through security checkpoints at U.S. airports.
At Budget Rent a Car in Detroit at least some rentals come with loaded firearms. Michigan is a shall issue state for gun licenses, and violent crime in Detroit is higher even than in Chicago, so a renter might be forgiven for thinking this was just a new package available for on-airport rentals.
A passenger from Florida (naturally) found a gun in their assigned vehicle at the Detroit airport Budget location.
The flight from San Francisco to Orlando was supposed to leave at 2 p.m. but the flight was “held on the tarmac after several passengers reported receiving inappropriate photos” according to a passenger.
When the screener asked the man to “step aside” he promptly ran away, left the terminal, and hopped into a taxi. He didn’t even stop to collect his shoes, which he’d sent through the x-ray machine as well. He left his bag behind, and also his wallet along with three forms of ID, “his boarding pass, a New York learner’s permit and his passport.”
A business traveler from Virginia checked into the Holiday Inn Express & Suites York in Pennsylvania and returned to room 217 drunk on Friday. He took out his 9 millimeter pistol. And he fired it in the room.
The bullet “went through the room of a sleeping man and an elevator lobby before nearly striking a woman in the parking lot.”
While the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program has had its scrapes and embarrassments, its record remains better than that of the Federal Air Marshal Program. Indeed frustrations with the air marshals are the reason that these post-9/11 efforts to arm pilots were hardly the first time this was considered.
Eastern Airlines commissioned a Colt revolver in the 1970s to combat hijackings. The charge was to develop a special revolver that wouldn’t cause problems for the aircraft if they penetrated the plane’s skin or its windows.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
