Washington State Senator Jeff Wilson accidentally brought a gun through TSA in Portland. Screeners there didn’t notice it in his carry on, natch.
When he took out his bag inflight, he noticed he had a gun with him (“when he reached for some gum in his bag”).
On arrival in Hong Kong he declared the gun to customs. He was arrested and then released on HK$20,000 (US$2,555) bail and had his passport taken. His next hearing is scheduled for October 30th.
His office defends the action noting that the gun “is properly licensed and registered in the United States” (as though U.S. law is all that matters, he also isn’t licensed to bring an undeclared firearm past an airport security checkpoint) and that taxpayers aren’t funding his five week trip to Asia.
According to Washington State Senate Republican leader John Braun,
We are learning about the incident with Sen. Wilson at the same time as the press and public here in America. As I understand it, this was an honest mistake. I do not have any additional information to share at this point, but we are watching the situation closely. That said, I hope that this can be resolved in a timely manner.
I believe that the second amendment clearly supports an individual right to gun ownership, and that Heller was rightly decided. I also believe that gun ownership entails a responsibility to know where your guns are (in most cases, locked in a gun safe when not being used). However,
- U.S. gun rights do not extend to a region of China
- I’m more concerned about TSA failing to detect guns that go through scanners at airport checkpoints than people accidentally bringing guns through those checkpoints
- Yet for all of the reports of a record number of guns at checkpoints (and many more undetected)it’s worth pointing out that none wind up being used.
Wilson represents Longview, which is about two hours south of Seattle and about an hour’s drive from the Portland airport.
(HT: Alan)
Not too bright. Just like Brittney “forgetting” about her cannabis vapes.
Will Biden bail him out like Trump did for the UCLA hoops stars detained in Beijing?
“Washington State Senator Jeff Wilson unintentionally carried a gun in his carry-on bag through TSA in Portland, only realizing mid-flight when reaching for gum.”
One sentence that captures so many things that are just crazy-wrong. How does a State Senator “unintentionally” carry a gun around? How does he unintentionally take it on a plane? How does TSA not catch it? And taking it to a Chinese-ruled territory???
The guy is too stupid to be a State Senator (or maybe not….)
You think the 2nd amendment is clear???
LOL
What are Republicans always saying?
“Lock them up and throw away the key.”
I believe the Chinese will be following this advice.
Because it’s China…..
There is a reasonable argument that the 2nd Amendment was written to provide for a “well regulated militia” to: 1) legally arm patrols that put down revolts by enslaved people, and 2) was necessary for a country with virtually no standing army and which was busy stealing land from its original inhabitants. All of this existed in the context of single shot muskets and simple rifles, of course. I might as well claim the right to stable horses in my central city garage since that was common in the 18th century too. Right now the U.S. has far more guns per capita than any other country in the world. So it is not a surprise that somebody forgot one in his bag; in this country that probably happens thousands of times a day. Do you feel safer?
Doesn’t say much for TSA, does it? Unless he used some secret state senator entrance to get airside.
And if you’re careless enough to forget a firearm’s location, much less carry it with you in a prohibited and secure area, you probably shouldn’t own one.
I’m all for 2A rights, but it comes with a heightened sense of awareness and responsibility.
@Thing 1 – I am not a “gun person” although have shot both pistols and rifles in my past. I agree it was a bad mistake but some people travel with a firearm and he may have routinely had it in that bag then, as he was packing, forgot to remove it.
Frankly if I was in that situation going to a foreign country and found out I had forgotten to remove a weapon I would take it out, hide it on the plane and leave it. Unless has some sent value he could buy another one for under $1000 and that would be easier then whatever he would deal with I. Practically any foreign country.
Which part of “well regulated militia” was Heller based on? I actually don’t understand why you would bring your layman’s opinion into a rather straightforward story about a moron who didn’t know where his gun was and ended up.violating US law and getting stuck in HK and possibly jailed.
Why would he declare it instead of leaving it on the plane or ditching it in the nearest toilet…
Idiot.
Just so we are all clear on the second amendment: it DOES NOT grant the “right” to bear arms. It simply states that the government DOES NOT have the right to infringe on the people’s right to arm themselves. People misinterpret it all the time; mostly because they don’t understand the grammar. The amendment is a simple sentence that is broken into two parts. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State” is a prefatory clause. It’s a preamble or a prologue to the real meat of the sentence. It could say “Because today is Tuesday” without changing the real meaning of the amendment. the clause is there just to give some context to “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
I have to say, I routinely go armed. I **ALWAYS** know if I do or do not have a gun, and honestly have little sympathy with those who fall into this predicament.
That said, if he’d kept his yap shut he’d probably have got away with it, entry customs in HK are not stringent, esp. if you are a gweilo. He could then have pitched the damn thing off the Star Ferry and all would be well.
So Gary believes “Heller was rightly decided.” I guess he also believes that easily modifiable semiautomatic assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and Teflon-coated “cop-killer” bullets are sensible options for self-defense.
Five week trip? I guess state senators don’t have to work that much!
‘Muricans and their guns. Micor penis syndrome.
What a joker. Gun owners are supposed to be accountable for their firearm, and as any service member will tell you, know where the weapon is at all times. I’m pro gun owners if they are responsible, but this dude clearly is not qualified to own a firearm. .
@AC
Trying to abandon It would cause more problems for you. Remember it would have a serial number and is registered to you. So if you tried to abandon it somewhere, somebody else could find it and use it. Maliciously, which would put you in even more trouble as well as possible being considered their associate or helping them out.
@AC: “Frankly if I was in that situation going to a foreign country and found out I had forgotten to remove a weapon I would take it out, hide it on the plane and leave it”
This is a *HORRIBLE HORRIBLE* idea. Someone is going to find that gun, guns have serial numbers, and they are going to figure out it’s yours. And then they are going to wonder why you are stashing guns on planes.
I think your best case is, if it’s loaded, take your bag to the lavatory and unload it, then on arrival declare your error to the airline, and HOPEFULLY they let you check it and turn around and fly back and deal with any consequences with US authorities rather than their Chinese counterparts.
In this case no good deed goes unpunished. Don’t declare the damned gun, destroy the SN, break it apart as much as possible and throw it off the Kowloon ferry. Like it never happened.
@Jon: In many states being a state senator is, in fact, NOT a full time position. Texas prides itself on only being in session for 140 days every two years…. less time for the government to get into your business (unless you have a uterus, in which case, all up in there.)
Once while in the check-in line, I became aware of other passengers staring at me and a few little kids pointing and snickering.
It took me a few minutes, but I eventually realized that I had gone out that morning without remembering to put my clothes on!! I thought the airport was a little drafty that day and that was why!! Suddenly, it all made sense: the snickering, the draftiness, the stares, and the fact that I had to carry everything around in my hands – wallet, phone, tickets, pocket lint, etc.
I hate when that happens.
Wow: five weeks in a Hong Kong five-star hotel. THANKS Texas tax payers!
Non of this bs. Matters when leaving USA. He will either pay dearly or do jail time there. The 2a does not matter in this case.
I would have put it in an amnesty bin or trash can and got the f out of HKG as soon possible.
Good. Keep him. Teach him to be disrespectful..
According to the article in the Seattle newspaper, he “inadvertently” packed it. I’m sorry, but no one “inadvertently” packed a gun. He just wanted to bring the damn gun.
Of course a republican and to mention 2nd amendment, they are just to damn stupid to govern.
TSA, there must be video of this mistake, would love to see it, he probably chatted up the whole line and that is how it was missed.
Why is idiot carrying a gun in the first place, in peace times, we do not need the 2nd amendment to apply!
He’s a Republican.
Enough said
There is no amnesty bin at Hkia. Flew in there many times. No bathroom from plane to immigration. He could have left it on the plane only.
I try to make sure I know everything that is in my carry-on bag and personal item since having my highly dangerous three inch scissors taken from me in Bangkok many years ago. Those were small and light, but a gun is a lot heavier and larger. I have absolutely no explanation of how a gun could be missed in packing a carry-on.
…declaring it on arrival is probably the dumbest thing he could have done. He should have disassembled and ditched individual parts in various trash bins.
If he wanted to bring the gun he wouldn’t have turned it in on arrival. Clearly an oops–presumably, he normally has the gun there and forgot to remove it. I don’t regard that as major irresponsibility. A failure to remove is very different than a deliberate packing. (And I’ve actually carried a small multitool with a blade through courthouse security that way once. They saw it but I told them it was a flash drive, I left the tool in my car. They didn’t check. I get back to my car–sitting there where I had put it when taking it out was the flash drive, not the tool.)
I do agree that ditching it would have been the sensible course of action.
Heller was wrongly decided. I refer you to Justice Stevens dissent. He was right, Scalia was wrong. Very wrong.
Yeah.. I would’ve ditched it. Since he realized it on the flight, best idea would’ve been to ditch it on the airplane somewhere, it probably would’ve just made it back to the US or some other country. (I assume this was a Cathay flight) There are probably cameras everywhere in HKG but almost none on the plane itself.
T S A= Too Stupid for America or Thousands Standing Around. The TSA agents at the time he went through security at KPDX should be fired. PERIOD. Oh, wait…they are government union employees.
@JorgeGeorge
What are democrats always saying? “The age of consent is to high”.
The guy is simply nuts. The 2nd Amendment says nothing about a non-well regulated individual wandering around with firearms, let alone carrying them internationally. This is stupidity on a truly staggering scale by the individual in question. He epitomizes Karma.
This should make a lot of TSA fanboys wonder how many guns made it through the TSA screening checkpoints without ever being found where and when they should have been interdicted.
This is a tip of the iceberg of problems with DHS/TSA. Instead of wasting the public’s money and time on passenger ID/identification issues, they should scrap passenger ID checking and identification-based checking and put all hands on deck to screen for obviously restricted weapons to stop those.
Make flying better again by scrapping the TSA’s passenger ID checking.
ahahaha hope he gets sent to the covid camps indefinitely
I have to wonder if it was accidental, too, or if he had something more nefarious in mind and got cold feet
Proving my long held theory that state senators from any party are idiots who mostly own local car dealerships or pawn shops.
@Andys It’s too, not to. But I would expect nothing less of course.
Trickle up politics and political career development and job security desires have given us US Senators who are poison Ivy League products whose key game is to maximize demagoguery and yet not match the indicted “former guy”
at the center of the Grand Old Party circus.
And this is why the “only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun” argument fails. For every one “bad guy with a gun,” this country has 100 idiots with a gun, and the only thing that stops them from killing is luck.
I can tell by the weight of my carry-on whether I have or do not have my Macbook Air inside it. A gun is much heavier. We should not be accepting the Senator’s side of the story at face value.
What was the make/model of the gun he ended up sneaking past the TSA?
Sort of ironic that the US airport screeners who sometimes stop Disney toy light sabers at the screening checkpoints are part of the same group that missed this state politician’s gun.
Coincidentally, I have a couple of acquaintances who are state legislators in WA,, and so I am curious what they make of their colleague getting caught like this.
@drrichard
By your argument, the First Amendment shouldn’t apply to radio, TV, movies, telephones, the internet or even PA systems as none of those devices existed in the 18th century.
The problem I’m seeing is “he normally carries it in his briefcase?”
Unless he has his briefcase handcuffed to his wrist that’s a gun getting into criminal hands just waiting to happen.
Bill,
That wasn’t what drrichard’s words imply.
But would you have us take it that our 2nd Amendment rights include the right for individuals to bear nuclear arms? It’s not like the Founding Fathers defined “arms” so as to specifically exclude nuclear arms.
Personal responsibility.
You “National Guard only” people need to read the courts decisions. The 2nd Amendment clearly refers to two things – the National Guard AND “the right of the people”. Two totally different things.
And the Supreme Court said so. So you are wrong!
Well-regulated militia, not “national guard”.
The Founding Fathers weren’t all fans of giving the right to bear arms to the people whom they didn’t want voting in elections for state and federal offices. You know — the people who were counted as three-fifths of a person for census purposes covered by the Constitution.
Carried in his briefcase?????
Anyone who is that “unaware” of the location of their firearm(s) should not have a ‘Carry & Conceal’ permit — much less an actual weapon.
Can you imagine this imp if he ever found himself in a situation where a gun was needed? I can!
I picture a ‘Barney Fife moment’ — frantically reaching in all his pockets for the pistol; maybe he even carries a bullet in his pocket??
Kevin L,
Maybe a future article on this entertaining blog will be this:
TSA suddenly ups its game to find a lot more massage guns and bullet-styled “adult toys” at the screening checkpoints, after being called out on missing real gun.
I think I was one of the gullible ones who didn’t oppose the “federalize to professionalize” the way I should have. And so now we get all this national ridiculousness from a TSA that misses obvious guns but has too much time to hassle passengers for identification to fly.
I am pretty sure Señor Leff was opposed to the “federalize to professionalize” movement, but I always welcome efforts at correction when I am wrong and when I may not be.
Notice how it is ALWAYS the Republicans doing this awful stuff? When will this country get it?
And in another article, he blames TSA for not catching it before he got on the plane. Sure, TSA dropped the ball, but they didn’t pack his bag, The party of personal accountability doesn’t much like to be held personally accountable.
Awful stuff is done by people of various political persuasions, and there is certainly no partisan monopoly on questionable behavior, but there is irony in wanting to pose as the “tough on crime” type while violating laws and behaving irresponsibly in such a way that his gun is likely more a threat to himself, his family, friends,, neighbors, colleagues and community than to unfamiliar violent criminals or other armed strangers.
I suppose this is why we demonize China for not being more like us and letting guns onto airplanes…
Disgusting behavior by Hong Kong, I mean, China. Remind me never to try Cathay Pacific which flies through Hong Kong, or if I find a mistake in my luggage, to not go through security; but, to turn around and fly back. Your airline ticket entitles you to an immediate return flight. I know of other disgusting stories by Chinese Airport security. Best wishes and good luck to this imprisoned airline passenger.
Just imagine being on an airplane where a passenger had a firearm. Scary.
I only wish the US arrested these idiots. If TSA was empowered to arrest instead of slapping on the wrist the 98% of people with arms it catches, we would all be safer even if 2.% is not caught.
Just to get some data out, the TSA is catching weapons at a relate of 6,600 per year. Not a typo: almost seven THOUSAND. None of which went to jail. Truly scary.
I spent 8 years in the military, have had a concealed license most of my adult life and never, ever, have forgotten where my guns are, how many rounds are in them, whether they are racked or not! I always have one in my center console in my car and one in the nightstand. I don’t understand this.
A total fool. Can YOU see yourself absent-mindedly packing a pistol in your luggage for an airplane trip to China? Nah, me neither.
He wins this month’s award for dumbshit traveler. I, too, wish TSA would treat these incidents with the appropriate seriousness. We are all endangered by these people who can’t be bothered trusted to know where their lethal weapon is. A stiff fine is the LEAST this guy should face upon his return. Where the hell is the Portland D.A.?
As bad as that female basketball player bringing stuff with her. Need to respect these countries. They’re not so absent minded as the u.s.
Nothing good ever comes from telling the truth in these unique situations. He doesn’t sounds like the sharpest tool in the shed. Should have just dismantled and discarded the gun in the men’s room and gotten the hell out of dodge…
Play stupid games win stupid prizes. Love it when these 2nd amendment people think that their rights surpass everyone else’s rights. Just because you have a permit to carry in Texas does not mean you can carry a gun into Canada when traveling from Texas to Alaska.
On his next trip he could try taking some cannabis into Singapore.
It’s his own damn fault for declaring it. They scan your bags at customs but not you. Never once have they blinked an eye for a metal detector going off, especially with phone in hand.
Could have tossed the thing in the harbor and nobody would have ever known.
It’s actually pretty shameful that we elect so many people who are not even remotely intelligent or wise. If the people of Washington State are lucky the PRC will plea bargain him down to deportation and resignation from his elected office.
Will he lose Global Entry and PreCheck status for his next flights after he gets sent back to the US? He should, if they want to be consistent.
I am against haraSSSSment flagging of Americans, but he seems like someone who would have been a fan of that for others.