Today's winner is The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. They get the award for the following.
A pendant in the shape of an antique Colt 45 pistol almost landed Marnina Norys in the hoosegow on Monday.This whole story is hysterical. Go to the link above and read it in its entirety, plus this followup one. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority has since apologized for their stupidity but I'll still name them today's Knucklehead of the Day.The 39-year-old Toronto resident was caught by alert Kelowna Airport security wearing the 1.75-inch sterling silver pendant on a chain around her neck.
"That's a replica," an unidentified security agent told the harried traveller as if she would understand that replica weapons, even miniaturized pieces of jewelry, are not allowed.
Her jewelry posed no threat, responded Norys, and could hardly be used to hijack an airplane. "It's what it represents," said the agent.
*****
"How do you know it wasn't a real gun?" asked Guy, a security agent with the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, who also declined to provide his last name.
"Who knows if there is a gun that small that can shoot bullets? You don't know that. They followed the rules."
Anyone who tries to get through airport security with a piece of jewelry that looks like a miniature knife, spear or any other weapon would be told the same thing, he said.
A picture of the offending 'weapon' is below the fold.
Hat tip- Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy
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Knucklehead of the Day
Comments (7)
A prime example of giving t... (Below threshold)1. Posted by GarandFan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| June 3, 2008 10:15 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
A prime example of giving the wrong people any discretionary authority. Do these TSA idiots take any kind of test to prove they at least have what's known as "common sense"?
1. Posted by GarandFan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| June 3, 2008 10:15 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on June 3, 2008 22:15
2. Posted by Billll![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| June 3, 2008 11:16 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
"Do these TSA idiots take any kind of test to prove they at least have what's known as "common sense"?"
Yes, and if they show any signs of having any, they get rejected.
2. Posted by Billll![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://wizbangblog.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| June 3, 2008 11:16 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on June 3, 2008 23:16
3. Posted by SPQR | June 3, 2008 11:21 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
These are Canada's version of TSA. But they are of a kind.
These idiots have these rules because they have these kind of idiots running security. Idiots who tell a Congressional Medal of Honor winner that his medal poses a threat to security. Idiots who tell people with little miniature castings that they might be real weapons.
Because they are completely unqualified to recognize what is and is not an actual threat.
It is idiocy like this that has resulted in an airline industry on the brink of bankruptcy.
3. Posted by SPQR | June 3, 2008 11:21 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on June 3, 2008 23:21
4. Posted by JoeC | June 4, 2008 8:32 AM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Yep. I have said the way for the airline security mess to get fixed is for people to QUIT FLYING. (and recent reports are indicating many are) When the airlines finally scream foul because their revenue dried up because people quit flying, only then will they band together and get congress to fix the abomination that is TSA. But until the airlines do that, the people who fly will still be subjected to the idiocy that passes as airport security.
(disclosure: I was a platinum flier on AA. For 10 years up to 2004 I did between 50 and 170 segments a year. The last flight I took was January 2004.... and I have not been on an airplane since. My fear now is I get a contract that I could not drive to fulfill.)
My non-PC comment to why I don't fly is "When the TSA can explain to me how many fat, bald, 50+ year old frequent flier white men hijacked planes on 9/11, and how basically strip searching them, teenage girls, grandmothers, and nursing women, maybe then I'll once again subject myself to the farce that is airport security. Until then, I'll drive."
4. Posted by JoeC | June 4, 2008 8:32 AM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on June 4, 2008 08:32
5. Posted by hyperbolist | June 4, 2008 9:53 AM | Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
While she posed no threat, I think there should be a standard of tastefulness to which all Canadian citizens ought to be held. A gun pendant?! Call the fashion police.
5. Posted by hyperbolist | June 4, 2008 9:53 AM |
Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on June 4, 2008 09:53
6. Posted by BPG | June 4, 2008 12:45 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Consider this - the reason fat, bald, platinum AA flyers get picked out along with grandmothers and teenage girls is because it would not be politically correct to focus efforts on those that might actually BE a threat. That would upset people, and we certainly can't upset people.
Then again, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad is fat, balding, and around 50...
And for someone who has flown as much as you have, do you honestly believe that TSA is the problem? You haven't been on a plane in 4 years. Try the horribly mismanaged airline industry and their attitude towards customers. They make TSA look stellar by comparison.
6. Posted by BPG | June 4, 2008 12:45 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on June 4, 2008 12:45
7. Posted by moseby | June 4, 2008 1:34 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Hey now! If you had a tiny brain like this guy wouldn't that gun seem quite real?
7. Posted by moseby | June 4, 2008 1:34 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on June 4, 2008 13:34