TSA took my buddy's charging handle. What?

[jve153]

yes, and the airline people who have NO IDEA what TSA policy is are even worse. per the tsa you can have your cased ammunition inside the locked gun case. i was made to remove it on my way back from florida last trip. i decided to leave one of the 3 copies of the tsa rules i had printed out and highlighted before the trip with her.

 

[gunowner930]

What would a potential terrorist do with a charging handle? Give it to a toddler and tell him its a toy hammer? A charging handle for an AR is less dangerous than a pencil.

 

[04DarkShadowGT]

Even if its borderline, why risk it? Gun parts are clearly not even borderline.

Everyone can blame TSA all they want these days but I doubt you could bring gun parts onto a plane pre 9/11.

 

[cosermann]

The TSA is nothing but security theater (and an affront to all that is good and decent). See:

Does Airport Security Really Make Us Safer? | Culture | Vanity Fair

Schneier on Security: The TSA Proves its Own Irrelevance

 

[Sylvain]

What would a potential terrorist do with a charging handle? Give it to a toddler and tell him its a toy hammer? A charging handle for an AR is less dangerous than a pencil.

With enough parts you can make a gun.
With enough terrorists bringing enough parts that's actually possible as most of the parts dont scream "gun parts" like little pieces and spring.
Now to bring the barrel and larger parts that's another story, not to mention the ammo.
If you let someone bring a charging handle into the plane then where do you stop them?
How many parts can I bring?
Can I bring all of those as long as one passenger doesn't have enough parts to make a full gun?

 

[gunowner930]

Sylvain- For the record, I don't think firearms on planes is a bad idea. However, from my understanding it seems like the OP's friend was carrying a charging handle alone, if he had the necessary components to assemble an AR on the aircraft then yes I see their point of view. However, a charging handle alone is nothing, and frankly I'm surprised the screeners even knew what it was.

 

[cosermann]

Even if a group of terrorists were able to cobble together a gun by somehow carrying on the various parts, the result would be nothing like 9/11 because people's attitudes have changed. Before it was, "just cooperate and everything will be fine." Now, passengers will take someone out at the first wiff of trouble.

 

[Robjps]

With enough parts you can make a gun.
With enough terrorists bringing enough parts that's actually possible as most of the parts dont scream "gun parts" like little pieces and spring.
Now to bring the barrel and larger parts that's another story, not to mention the ammo.
If you let someone bring a charging handle into the plane then where do you stop them?
How many parts can I bring?
Can I bring all of those as long as one passenger doesn't have enough parts to make a full gun?

Very simple you stop at the lower the actual gun. I traveled with 3 shotgun magazine extensions that i didn't want "lost".