The TSA now want to tell you about the loaded .38 caliber...

You’ll get harassed for daring to have long frizzy hair or scribe your fourth amendment rights on your chest. But pack a loaded gun on your next flight out and the TSA might just bungle that shit up and let you board fully armed. Now who’s a jack ass…? what’s up with that?

Let’s read the following TSA directive out aloud together and see how it goes down:

Lorie Dankers, a spokeswoman for the TSA, said that while the agency screens carry-on luggage for firearms, it is not the TSA’s responsibility to screen checked baggage for guns. The agency only screens checked baggage for explosives, she said.

I bet that didn’t go down too well, but that’s just a hunch.

So here’s the low down:

latimes: Airport security officials at Los Angeles International Airport failed to detect a loaded handgun that was contained in a traveler’s checked bag Sunday, according to several law enforcement sources.

An airport ramp crew discovered the loaded .38-caliber handgun Sunday after it tumbled from an unzipped compartment in a duffel bag they were loading onto Alaska Airlines Flight 563, according to the sources. The aircraft was leaving the terminal at LAX at 8:15 a.m. Sunday, bound for Portland, Ore.

Discovered only after it accidentally fell out of an unzipped compartment in a duffel bag? Is that another way of saying nothing would have shown in the first place had the duffel bag been properly sealed? Not a rattle, not a slither, not an ‘oh shit- I had no idea that loaded gun was in my bag!’ surprise exclamation? And what if by chance the passenger packing the gun had bad intentions? Although it’s true passengers don’t have access to bags that sit in cargo, what if at the last minute the passenger was able to persuade someone at the gates that they needed to take out some much needed ‘documents’ out of a bag that had already been checked through?

Upon finding the gun, the passenger (who for now remains unnamed) was taken down to the LAPD where they were interviewed and released without further incident and allowed to board a later flight. The gun on the other hand didn’t make it out on a later flight.

So if the TSA can make you throw away hair gel, half consumed bottles of water and make you walk around in your tippie toes half naked why can’t they go the extra mile (since they’re already going out to bat on your dime) and run a metal detector over passenger’s bags? Even a random metal detector?

Maybe the way the TSA conducts its affairs ought to be re-evaluated, but maybe that’s just me getting a little touchy and nervous. What do you think?

TSA forces 95 year old cancer patient to take off her diaper.

Protester who had fourth amendment written on his chest is set to challenge the TSA in court. Defining liberty in a post terrorist world.

6 year old girl is given full TSA pat down then a drug test.

The Delicious drama of the Transportation Securities Administration (TSA) has finally arrived onto your knickers.