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submitted 11 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

A Washington state senator was arrested at the airport in Hong Kong and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, his office said.

Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, was detained at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday night after he found a pistol in his carry-on bag and reported it to customs officials.

He was released on bail Sunday and faces a hearing Oct. 30.

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[-] Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 199 points 11 months ago

he passed through security at the airport in Portland, Oregon, where it was not detected by baggage screeners.

Tonight on TSA's security theatre

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 34 points 11 months ago

As long as you can buy all the ingredients to build an IED from the duty-free shop after the screening, you'll know how much TSA's "security" is worth.

[-] GombeenSysadmin@feddit.uk 32 points 11 months ago

Had a razor taken off me at security. Went through, bought a magazine with the same one taped to the cover as a free gift

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

What's ironic here is that this isn't a matter of incompetence, it's a matter of efficiency. There isn't much of a threat of hijacking airplanes, and there never has been. It's just that after 9/11 the spectacle of that even has caused the average person to overestimate the threat of terrorism in airports by several orders of magnitude. Therefore, while we're in no more danger than we were on 09/10/2001, people believe that there is a danger and if someone doesn't perform security, they won't fly. So, in order to appease these people who don't actually understand the situation but have the power to affect it, we all have to go through a little dance that's designed to look very much like security. Take your shoes off. Throw out your water bottle. Has anyone asked you to put anything in your bag for them? Put your shoes back on. Take your shoes back off. 95% of weapons in carry-on luggage make it through TSA screening and onto the plane. Put your shoes back on. Take your belt off.

[-] ShunkW@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

To be fair, the number of incidents was much higher in the 60s and 70s. Usually in the high 60s low 70s oddly enough, per year. Not really relevant nowadays, but an interesting fact.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

https://fee.org/articles/tsa-fails-95-of-the-time/

An internal investigation of the Transportation Security Administration revealed security failures at dozens of the nation’s busiest airports, where undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials, ABC News has learned.

In one test an undercover agent was stopped after setting off an alarm at a magnetometer, but TSA screeners failed to detect a fake explosive device that was taped to his back during a follow-on pat down.

[-] sramder@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

And yet my hands get swapped 10 years later for bringing a pair of sumo robots in my luggage.

[-] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 7 points 11 months ago

Can't tell you how many times my bag has been flagged because of my fucking Kindle.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

My bag is almost always flagged because almost every flight I am on is for work travel and I have my tools in it. I found stuff gets stolen less often if I put a checklist on the top. At least by America. The Canadian security stole a whole mess of cables as well as the checklist.

[-] sramder@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

LOL they just pick on a few of us so we spread the word that they're vigilant.

[-] BeMoreCareful@lemdro.id 2 points 11 months ago

I know federal Congress doesn't have to go through airport security. I'm guessing it's the same for state?

[-] kowcop@aussie.zone 69 points 11 months ago

Australian here.. I have never actually touched a handgun, in fact, I have never seen a handgun with my eyeballs outside of police/security.. it is weird how casual this seems

[-] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 70 points 11 months ago

“Woops, got so many firearms I didn’t even notice one was misplaced into my bag”

And americans think that’s normal

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 58 points 11 months ago

"I'm a responsible gun owner!" say every irresponsible gun owners.

Fuck the USA and its constitution, it even becomes an issue the next country over because idiots get their firearms stolen and they make their way to Canada so gang members can shoot each other and kill bystanders at the same time.

[-] mondo_brondo@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago

There are a lot of us here that would like to change things.

[-] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I used to work at a place where a guy would bring his guns in his truck to work every day.

To work in sales in an office in an industrial estate.

They were locked in that metal case in the back of his Ram, but if you were robbing a truck isn't that the first place you'd look? I also am willing to bet they weren't disassembled, cased, ammo separate either.

[-] Birdie@thelemmy.club 13 points 11 months ago

I'm older than most of y'all, 70. In high school, it was not unusual to have the student parking lot filled with pickup trucks...most of which had shot guns on gun racks hanging on the back window.

It's so weird to think about that now, how very normal it seemed at the time.

[-] MaxHardwood@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago

The big difference being about 5 billion more people on the planet since then and now.

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

100% what you break into. Its exposed, and the exact place most people keep expensive tools and stupid people keep guns.

[-] afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

A guy I worked with had a handgun with permits and stored in his car. We made torpedo parts for the navy. HR found out and sent an email about weapons on the premises. Hehe

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I was in the military, I regularly practice and teach responsible use and ownership. My background checks are clean and I never use firearms while under the influence of anything. All of my firearms are well maintained and locked away or disabled when they are not.

Guns are just guns. They are fun to shoot and a useful tool for hunting. Quite honestly, I love the precision engineering that it takes to contain up to 65,000 psi and direct that energy in a controlled manner.

Your generalization of responsible gun owners is bad, unfortunately. You seem to demonize people blindly and that is simply not healthy and not fair to people who actually respect what these tools actually are.

I am guessing your experience around firearms is basically nil and that is OK! Fear of them is a natural thing and is healthy to maintain a deep respect for any kind of high energy machinery.

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

What is the leading cause of death for children in the US again?

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Stop deflecting with rehtorical questions. It's kinda hostile. But, to answer the question anyway, it's fairly close between motor vehicles, firearms, cancer and just "normal" accidents.

My point, is that you are generalizing a group of people based on the behaviors of a minority. You can call me an idiot to my face for any reason that you would like for anything that I have said. Totally cool. You cannot group me in with a subset of people that you believe are all the same. That is completely unrealistic.

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

It's not a rhetorical question, and what the fuck is fairly close lol? There is a right answer here, big guy.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

The person that asked the question was someone other than the person you originally replied to (me).

My comment was just pointing out the truth, all irresponsible gun owners talk like they are responsible gun owners. You might be a responsible gun owner, it doesn't make what I say any less true.

It also doesn't change the fact that US guns make their way to my country and people get killed using them and these guns come, in part, from people who called themselves responsible owners and who got their gun(s) stolen.

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Canada should stop exporting alcohol. In my opinion, that is a much more potent killer than guns will ever be.

Crown Royal, and the responsible consumers of that product, should be held responsible for all deaths and domestic abuse caused by their products. The people that get drunk aren't the issue, so we should just ban alcohol completely.

People who say they are responsible consumers of alcohol are actually not. They actually hide bottles of booze from their family and get completely blitzed whenever they have the chance.


Before you dismiss my example as a false equivalence, and to a degree it is, I can't help but see your logic as a shift of blame per my example.

If someone gets drunk and beats their kids, that person is at fault. If someone stabs someone else with a knife, that person is also at fault. If your car gets stolen and it is used to run people over, it's the fault of the thief.

If someone shoots someone else with a stolen gun, it's now the fault of responsible gun owners who may also be victims of crimes (theft) themselves.

I should also point out that words are not actions. People can say anything they want. If someone says they are responsible and they actually aren't, that can create a risky situation. Guns aside, that is life in general. If people act irresponsibly, they should be treated as such. If they drink too much, send them to a doctor. If they don't obey traffic laws, send them to remedial training and suspend their license after that if necessary. If they can't operate a firearm or follow laws, take their guns.

Also, in my personal experience, irresponsible gun owners talk like irresponsible gun owners. In general, irresponsible people act like irresponsible people which is much easier to identify.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 6 points 11 months ago

Alcohol is easy to make at home so no way to realistically ban it, plenty of campaigns to lower it's consumption.

Knives are necessary to make food and are easy to make at home, already illegal to carry knives over a certain size.

Cars are necessary for personal transportation because of the way our countries are developed, manufacturers are making them safer and harder to steal.

Guns? Neither necessary or easy to make at home, manufacturers make them more efficient at killing, easy to ban.

The only reason these guns exist in Canada is because USA has the gun culture it has, make all guns disappear from the USA and Canada and see how little will illegally make the way inside both countries. The fact that you guys have such easy access to guns is the issue, no matter how safely you store them, if someone enters your house without you noticing, points one at your head and tells you to open your safe to steal your firearms, you'll do it while pissing your pants and say thank you if they don't shoot you before leaving.

Sure, people are the issue, the object isn't. What you guys don't get is that all people who want to own guns are the issue, not just irresponsible owners.

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[-] BarterClub@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago

Shouldn't be. But here in oh USA we treat it as our first born son. 🤦‍♂️

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[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago

Run for public office and get 5 weeks vacation time with your beloved firearm while you deny basic human decency for the people who elect you.

Offer valid only if you have the magic ‘R’ next to your name

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 36 points 11 months ago

Idiots do idiotic things. Who let this idiot on a plane with a gun in the first place?

[-] Tronn4@lemmy.world 33 points 11 months ago
[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Theatre of Security Agency

[-] zeppo@lemmy.world 31 points 11 months ago

How do people do this by accident?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 40 points 11 months ago

They're very, very stupid.

[-] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 14 points 11 months ago
[-] zeppo@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago

He found the gun itself and turned it in. Why would he have it with him on purpose when he willingly decided to turn it in? It wasn’t found by airport authorities first.

[-] UFODivebomb@programming.dev 4 points 11 months ago

Aye. I think Hanlon's razor actually applies here. Wacky as that is.

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[-] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 20 points 11 months ago

I wish the Hong Kong police and judicial system well in dealing with this asshole.

[-] Treczoks@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago

As in: "Keep 'em as long as you want"?

[-] TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

Fine by me. One less insurrectionist.

Also, some people are saying he's a spy. They might want to look into that.

[-] SeaJ@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

I hope he loses his concealed carry permit at the very least.

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this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
252 points (100.0% liked)

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