Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 3, 2011

TSA in Virginia airport flipped out over this tiny gun design on a teen's small purse

For a while there, TSA stopped being stupid with its Gestapo-like tactics of terrorizing small children, arresting parents who protected their children from TSA groping, and humiliating senior citizens, nuns, and people in wheelchairs.

Until now. A pregnant teen girl carrying a small purse with a Western gun design on it was treated like an al Qaeda operative this week by Norfolk International Airport TSA security in Virginia as she headed home to Jacksonville.

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Gibbs said she has carried the small purse with her many times on air flights — this was the first time she was detained and interrogated by Transportation Security Administration. She was told she had committed a “federal offense” with the fake Wild West pistol design on the purse and their interrogation took so long, she missed her flight home.

Summary from Breitbart.tv – TSA Freaks Out Over Gun Design On Purse:

“[TSA] was like, ‘This is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun. I’m like, ‘But it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?’” After agents figured out the gun was a fake, TSA told her to check the bag or turn it over.

Crikey.

From News4Jax, Teen stopped by TSA for gun-themed purse:

Vanessa Gibbs, 17, said officials with the Transportation Security Administration at Norfolk International Airport stopped her during a security screening because they said her handbag — which has the shape of a gun designed on it — was as a security risk, WJXT-TV reported.

According to the TV station, Gibbs said she had no problem going through TSA screening at Jacksonville International Airport but was stopped as she was headed home from a holiday trip in Virginia.

[...]

Gibbs said after agents figured out the gun was a fake, she was directed to check the bag or turn it over.

However, because of the TSA delay, the teen said she missed her flight, and had to fly to Orlando instead, worrying her mother, who was waiting in Jacksonville.

“Oh, it’s terrifying. I was so upset,” Tami Gibbs, the teen’s mom, told WJXT-TV. “I was on the phone all the way to Orlando trying to figure out what was going on with her. It was terrifying. I don’t ever want to go through it again.”

What upsets Gibbs the most is that she said she has taken the purse on planes before and that no one else has mistaken the tiny gun design as a real weapon.

However, TSA officials stressed that the gun purse could be considered a replica weapon, which have been prohibited since 2002.

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