Gatwick Airport security swoops on 3-inch rifle

I'm off.

I am so ashamed of the rampant panic and cowardice brought on by a few nutty terrorists.

We even fear toys now. I can't think of a better example of a terrorist victory if i tried.

I'm off to hide in shame, call me back when the world grows some balls.

We shoot them with our plastic guns.

I fly through Schiphol a lot. Normally things are fine, the security there is friendly, tolerant of humour and alert. However...

One sleepy morning going through the Schengan line one mother with her child are stopped at the X-Ray machine. The child has a plastic flint-lock pirate pistol. The security guy explains that even if it's a toy gun it could still be real and the proceeds to pull the trigger several times whilst pointing the offensive toy in random directions!

What should one do in that situation? Hit the dirt? Laugh? Or just leave the area very quickly wondering and sadly shaking head?

Another time - in San Antonio, TX - Going through the security. I get singled out for a "special" security check. Fine. I get put in some sort of glass walled cage and feel like I'm on show. I ask why this is being done. I get told I'm special and that if I don't like it - to go and complain to airline security rep at the check in desk. Very useful. Not.

Anyways - I eventually get let out and my bag is gone through with various explosive sniffers and such like. I have a small bottle of hand cleaner (alcohol based) that raises his interest. I explain it - no problem. I comply with questions an such like - I've nothing to hide. Anyways - after 10 minutes of questioning and "sniffing" my bag - I'm allowed to go on with my journey and have a pleasant flight. Fine.

I get home some hours later VIA a connecting flight in Houston and similar treatment. I find my 4" lock-back army knife hiding in plain sight in one of the side pockets. I mean - ok - it's green - but no-one commented or saw it. Makes me wonder.

What riles me the most...

... is the canned statement from the "spokeswoman for Gatwick airport", which totally sidesteps the idiocy of the action and puts the context in the same category as actual offenses.

Too many do this ("canned statements") nowadays. Let's administration get away with anything. Dismiss everything, no need to explain or learn and improve.

Looking in the coat to see if any common sense is left...

What the fuck?

That is all.

OMFG

Sorry, don't usually rely on LULZ and OMGs but W and indeed TF are these people thinking?

Oh hang on, got it; they weren't thinking. Still, it's the supremely ironic to have toy security staff confiscating toy guns.

Well as it's Friday, I'm off to buy myself some hi-viz and a PMR so I too can inflict randomness on total strangers.

Incredible...

detail and scale accuracy. Anyone would get confused. NOT.

so then...

who's for trying to fly with a gun tattoo then?

how the fuck does rihanna(daft r&B bint IIRC) get through customs eh?

i'm off for a lie down before i pop a fucking vein!

Not just us British.

Couple of years ago coming back out of Edmonton Alberta, the security guards took a Keyring in the shape of a pair of handcuffs off of me.

Now in his favour the cuffs did work, did open, did click closed..... However on the other hand the cuffs were about 2 cm across and the lock holes had little release pins sticking out of them....

I did point out that unless they had really really really small pilots and air hostesses it probably wouldnt be a problem, but I guess the risk of me temporarily (i.e. until they pushed the little pins) cuffing a pilots little fingers together was just to high a threat to the safety of the plane.

Unfortunately....

You have to remember who these security guys are...

Most are failed Police candidates, part timers, or little Hitler jobsworths with no imagination who take the job as it is the only way they can have any form of power or influence.

Makes me ashamed to be English.

They are all idiots

My wife and I were taking the kids to Disney Land last year and to keep our kids happy we had made them up play packs to keep them occupied and to stop them bugging us on the flight. Now the youngest decided to fire into his on the car trip to the airport and had came across the lego and made what every boy would - a crappy looking gun to shoot passing cars with.

During the pass through security this "firearm" was discovered and said he could not pass through with it. Now being the logical person, I simply broke up the lego gun back to its original pieces thinking the problem is solved.....nope my son now had a disassembled firearm according to the security. Where the hell do they find these guys!!!!!!

Thank you BAA for the pleasure of trying to explain to a 4 year old why his lego was taken off him....bunch or arseholes.

Perhaps

he should've packed it in with a load of Glocks - they'd have let it through then...

The really sad thing here is ...

..whilst these moronic twats were investigating this, they were checking one less person, so maybe someone with an actual bomb or rifle could have been swanning past them.

People like this should be fired as they are obviously too stupid to actually detect a real threat.

Maybe...

The Gatwick security guy didn't think it was small, but just far away.

@Compare the Jobsworths #

You sir, owe me a new keyboard.

Brilliant idea....

Diversion

It was just a diversion. They do this so some dodgy bastard can nick small items like mobile phones from the trays... Thankyou, Heathrow security, for diverting my attention last year and letting some light-fingered member of staff (or a passer-by) walk off with my phone.

Potentially lethal weapon..

If he were to hold a baby hostage and threaten to feed it the 3in "gun" in question. Will no one think of the children?

Reminds me of the time...

... 8 years ago whilst flying on a family holiday, my mother pulled an 11 inch serrated breadknife out of her hand-luggage to cut up the cake she'd also packed for us to eat en-route

Where society went wrong

Things like this have convinced me that granting legal adulthood a set number of years after birth is one of the biggest mistakes in modern civilization. If we counted people as adult once they were observed to *be* adult, we could keep people like our current airport security staff under responsible supervision when in a place where they can affect the public.

Same goes for most MPs.

Train travel

If only the train went to Canada!

Now if it was someone from the USA, the bods a Gatwick might find themselves speaking with a lawyer, wouldn't that be just desserts!!!

Latest News: Security Theatre reduces Carbon Emissions...

... It has been announced today that worldwide carbon emissions from air travel have been significantly reduced because more and more people are refusing to be treated as potential terrorists simply for wanting to get on an aeroplane and are choosing not to travel by air...

Gatwick security as dumb as U.S. Homeland Security

You have to wonder just how purile 'security' experts can get. And they wonder why people think airport security is a joke.

Good to have a heads-up on where yet another bunch of idiots live in England, apart from Heathrow and Manchester. It's hard to believe that Gatwick actually has a new management team.

Do airports really appreciate how tales like these hurt tourism, along with the high cost of living in the UK, and Plod checking your camera and telling people you can't take pictures of ancient monuments?

What is the correct response to Airport Security...

...when they ask you

"Did you packed your own case?" - "No, my Wife did it, and it's entirely possible should would try to fit me up a cocaine smuggler"

or "Do you have knowledge of explosives?" - "Well with my degree in Chemistry and penchant for Braniac I could knock together enough thermite to burn a hole in your aircraft"

or "Do you have any knowledge of Terrorism" - "Well I listen to the Radio 4 Today programme, and am familiar with the methods of Al Qaeda"

Sometimes, too much truth at airports can be as dangerous as too little.

ProTip: If you do wish to smuggle live arms thro customs, just dis-assemble them and claim they are 'engineering samples' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12279177

£135 ???

Isn't the real story here that a plastic figurine sells at £135 and someone actually forked out that much for it?

Maybe the price of the figurine is also to scale and reflects the actual cost of the military kit. Can someone do the math on that verify?