JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -
A teenage girl’s sense of style got her in trouble at the airport.
Vanessa Gibbs, 17, claims the Transportation Security Administration stopped her at the security gate because of the design of a gun on her handbag.
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After agents figured out the gun was a fake, Gibbs said, TSA told her to check the bag or turn it over.By the time security wrapped up the inspection, the pregnant teen missed her flight, and Southwest Airlines sent her to Orlando instead, worrying her mother, who was already waiting for her to arrive at JIA.
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TSA isn’t budging on the handbag, arguing the phony gun could be considered a “replica weapon.” The TSA says “replica weapons have prohibited since 2002.”It’s a rule that Vanessa feels can’t be applied to a purse.
“Common sense,” she said. “It’s a purse, not a weapon.”
Read the missing pieces and watch the video here:
This is what happens when you take a bunch of losers with low self esteem, give them a badge and the authority to arbitrarily enforce ambiguously worded laws. The tyranny of the self important petty bureaucrat.
Other stories that have been in the news:
The Sgt. in group of US troops heading home from Iraq had his pocket knife confiscated by the TSA. When the irate Sgt. pointed out that he and his men were carrying their M-4 rifles slung on their shoulders, the TSA agent said “Those aren’t weapons, this knife is.”
In another case a man had bought his son a toy soldier. The “action figure” came packaged with a tiny M-16 which the TSA confiscated.
In still another case an Air Marshall, on duty and carrying his “real gun” was stopped by the TSA because he had bought a “Star Wars Jedi Light Saber” toy for his son’s birthday and put it in his carry-on luggage. Fortunately for him the pilot of the plane intervened and offered to hold it for him in the cockpit until the plane landed.
