Dang, I'm underage. Next they'll be banning grape juice because it can be "illegally converted" to wine...

Quick, hide the water pistols--the feds are coming!

My old Squadron Commander/Colonel told me not to worry or dwell on screw-ups like you described, DP. He said the "Other Side" is more incompetent than we are.

Not surprising at all. This ranks right up there with Nancy Pelosi saying we need to pass the health care bill so we will know what is in it. Having a double digit IQ above 20 has never been a requirement for government service. The ATF has had a god like arbitrary power for way too long. Vote new people in next November and demonstrate for a restructuring or elimination of the ATF
This is pathetic; embarrassing for a country like the U.S. We are slowly sliding down to the level of a third world country.

Lord help us

Your right. I'm pouring a glass of Wild Turkey, and that right soon.

Well, it proves the old adage that "stupid is universal."

Do these stories really surprise anyone here?
The dumb leading the DUMBER! GOD HELP US ALL!!

I remember the TSA incident with Joe Foss, and I marvel that anyone can reach adulthood in this country without recognizing a Medal of Honor.
I was not particularly surprised when I departed Chicago's O'Hare Airport in early October and the Twin-Track razor in my shaving kit was examined as a suspicious item. Most of my razors, like this one, have no moving parts and, while I freely admit my safety razors have drawn (my) blood while shaving before that first morning cup of coffee, I had to wonder why the young lady opened my shaving kit and couldn't figure it out. Truly, if this is a cross-section of America's security team, we are in dire straits.

Don't get me started on TSA! I frequently fly from Hartsfield in Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world. On a recent trip to Ireland and England my wife and I reenterd the country and did not see one natural born citizen of the US working customs or TSA on incoming international flights. Why do we have immigrants working in and apparantly running this system? Especially ones who can't speak the king's english! The people were extremely surly as well for they knew if you so much as looked at them wrong they could send you to the "yellow room" for a little fun and games.

I was once forced to go behind the blue curtain by TSA when the sniffer detected fertilizer on my shoes. Sans shoes I was ushered behind the curtain and asked to drop my trowsers while two fellows ran a metal detector in and out of my pants legs, over my groin and up my shirt. The same folks brought a lady behind the curtain with me and asked her to open her blouse so that they could examine her bra and run the dectector over her chest. I guess under wires are a case for national panic. Tears streamed from her eyes from the embarrassment as she complied. I looked the other way as the men, yes men had their way. As we left the strip search facility I urged her to file a complaint, she said she just wanted to get home...

We pay these blithering idiots squat and expect primo individuals to carry out a dull and thankless task. Most of the people who apply are "frustrated police" types who couldn't make dog catcher or garbage inspector. They will not admit a mistake and will quickly use the threat of detainment. Give an idiot a stick an he thinks he has carte blanche to beat you with it....

There are worse places though, a group of colleagues recently went to Honduras on a businees trip where male and females alike were asked to assume the position and were padded down by Honduran military men before boarding the plane. They didn't have metal detectors. The ladies said the fellows certainly seemed to enjoy thier job...

some people take there job to serious

I can understand that mistakes are occasionally made, and with national security I don't think airing on the side of caution is bad, but instead of trying to stick with the story and pretend to look like they never did anything wrong, why can't they be responsible and simply own up to their mistakes?

Thank God they got these convertible toys before they got into the hands of kids whereupon BATF would deploy fully armed teams to confiscate these weapons of destruction door to door.

But wait! What about all those shipments that came before? Oh my, they are untraceable when purchased with cash. There must be panic within the government. Who's head will roll? Especially since Obama has made it clear that heads must roll.

Can't wait for Part II.

Hoplophobia, in conjunction with political correct dumbassery, once more runs amok. The U.S. Customs Service, in conjunction with the worst gang of jackbooted thugs in the Nation's history, has reacted with an equal mix of ignorance, political correctness, and downright stupidity. The BATFE, with predictable snapping turtle mentality, has seized WEAPONS, and once WEAPONS are seized, of course policy forbids you should ever give them back. True to their history of ineptitude, the Guvment got it wrong again.
Of course, the Totally Stupid Agency is so far down on the scale of incompetence, no one who is ever forced to fly needs reminding of how reactive, idiotic, and totally useless this so called Agency is. Boy Scouts? Hell’s Bells and little paychecks, I’d rather have the Keystone Kops and the Three Stooges at the airport check in. At the very least, they would be entertaining!

I took my kid hunting because I thought He'd enjoy hunting. He did. I thought He would get some education about the environment. He did. It never occurred to me that, had I not introduced him to shooting sports, he would be lacking a vital part of a well-rounded education; knowing the difference between real guns and toy guns. Those agents must be wearing bags over their heads.

JCB hit the nail on the head! Mental Defectives! I can't even see how you could chamber a .223 round in an Airsoft! I refuse to fly commercially these days because I choose not to suffer the fools in the TSA. I often wonder what criteria they use for hiring TSA people, It plainly doesn't include any person with "normal" intelligence.
Paranoia has done the country no good except to have accomplished the evil of giving manipulative controlling bozos power over other people.
Gun control is about paranoia, "Health" and "life" insurance are sold (and forced on us) with paranoia as the excuse. Zero tolerance policies are about paranoia as is half the politics in Washington. I will admit to being a Pollyanna Pessimist, but I try to keep the paranoid streak under control. Paranoia only makes people overreact, and then a body has to deal with the effects of overreaction- be that cover up, apologize or damage control. As a certain great Democrat said "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". Paranoia is in essence a person lying to themself, and the consequences are the same. When self delusionary persons are confronted with the realities that contradict their fabricated world view they can only react in a limited number of ways. They can...
Deny the reality and dig their hole deeper,
Attack the messenger and dig their hole deeper,
Seek more data and reassess the issue
Accept the new input and change course (this is rare, because many refuse to accept that they could ever be wrong).
I see more individuals who by coersion or choice, use inflexible "policy" to make decisions rather than thing on their feet or adapt to varied situation. Strict adherance to "policy" decided anonymously in some boardroom by guys in suits turns people into Robots. I realize many prefer Robots to people, robots do exactly as they are told and require no benefits or human rights. But Society is made of People not machines, and turning people into robots, while convenient for corporate interests, is neither feasible nor desirable to most of the population. Robots are stupid and only do exactly as they are told, unless the person writing the programming is incompetent or has a hidden agenda. If America is falling from grace, it is due to the rise of the stupid, as Idiocracy rises to consume us all...

There is a saying, "good enough for Government work".
Explains it all.

A few years ago (the week of a a big security alert) I lost my cell phone on a domestic flight in the US, having endured the 'not my job to help you' rudeness of the first two tiers of airline staff i escalated the complaint to the most senior member of the airlines staff in the airport that day.

He told me to my face
"I barely have enough staff to get the next plane off the runway, let alone search it or find the cell phone you left under a seat"

Corporate interest will override national security every day. But Whoa! Something must be 'seen' to be done. So everyone must take off their shoes before getting on a plane. Doh!

SBW

I suppose my incident was more serious. I had one of those keychains that has a pin through the primer hole of a "bullet" to hold it on a ring. I was almost detained before just throwing it into a trashcan.

It's mt opinion that ALL GOV. is out of control and did not start with OBAMA, it just picked up steam.

Go over to Fort Chaffee Arkansas and let them find a 22 in your ashtray or a empty shotgun shell under the seat and watch them freak out!

Year ago, the Rent A’ Cop at the Social Security building followed me out to my truck saying my cell phone was a gun!

Talk about mindless gnomes, these folks got the IQ of an Amoeba!

UHG! Fire bad, food good, UHG!

Back in 89 out Moose Hunting and found a dozen blasting caps lying in the middle of the ATV trail and the next day I turned it over to EOD Folks. They came into my office, I pointed at the ammo can with the blasting caps in it, they open opened it up, closed it and said thank you then later that day they brought my ammo can back. WHAT SERVICE!

There is a street size mailbox like container in the airport in Cody, WY which is for the sole purpose of flyers to dispose of their bear pepper sprayers before they board the flight for home from a hunt in the Rockies. Keep in mind that these good hunters were encouraged to purchase a $50.00 bear sprayer prior to going to the hills on their hunt probably by an outfitter. Obviously most are never used and cannot be taken back on a commercial flight so in the box they go. This is most likely good for the local economy along with all the other money the visiting hunters spend for various purposes. What no one has ever been able to tell me is who eventually empties this large container and what happens to all of those perfectly good bear sprayers. I figure every other airport around the mountains in which grizzleys live has a similiar box so we are talking a considerable number of sprayers being left behind for someone.

what a bunch of idiots...

Darnit, I pulled the trigger to soon!

I said I can shoot not write, that's your job Dave! LMAO!!

As Lewis Black once said "If you think about this for more than two seconds blood will shoot out your nose. Don't do it. Don't do it."

blog!! sheesh!

And these are the same folks that say they can SAVE us money running healthcare!

RJ Arena

Want to see Government run health care?

Look at the VA!

i am not so sure that it is where you work, as it is having enough common sense to blow your own brains out when you get this stupid. some of the idiots that are in so called "position of power" should simply be carted off and shot. comon sense testing should be a part of every job application. and those without any, or have a limited amount, should be kept in the mail room, to open packages from the next unabomber.

Ok, I got this figured out... They haven't had any headlines lately to scare everyone into a frenzy about terrorism, so they have come up with something they are hoping will freak everyone out. Seriously? Airsoft? "You'll shoot your eye out!"-A Christmas Carol. If thats the concern, we might as well start confiscating pocket knives, fountain pens, and while we're at it, sporks!

Don't hold back, Mike. Tell us how you really feel!

b/r
WMH

TSA is probably lower than that.

I used to turn to the comics page when I wanted my laugh for the day. Now I turn to the front page.

YooperJack,
As always I agree with you. Glad your kid likes the outdoors, that's good stuff.

Gov't will mess around ordinary folks by red tape and trying to keep too many masters happy, private enterprise will mess around ordinary folks by greed and dog eat dog. Found good and bad in both areas.

workmandave

Did you used to write for a Washington hook and bullet rag? Just curious.

idiots.

Don't blame TSA stupidity on Obama, The whole TSA bulldada is Dubya's thing,
I notice that often employers will hire a stupid but PC person over a smart person who might think on their feet too much for their comfort.
Now that the Roberts court has ruled that corporations really do have more rights than human beings, you can expect things to get worse not better, at least until that SCOTUS ruling is supplanted by new law. Roberts, a corporate lawyer should have recused himself on that issue, but instead he only showed us how blatant corporate hegemony really is. We need the rights of actual human beings reaffirmed, Letting soulless, greedy, multinational, immortal corporations have whatever they want can only condemn the rest of us to slavery under corporate rule. Anybody who would want that would have to be a fascist or completely out of their mind. Earth is for People.

WOW! Just when you think the Gov't could not get any more dumber! First it was Root beer in beer style bottles that were taken away (because we all wanted a ready available 16 oz. home brew right), then it was the candy cigarettes (since its a well known fact that our parents ate there cigs ater they smoked them, right?)....so of course the toy guns are next. Way to go ATF!!! No wonder the Army has to re-vamp their training in boot camp. We're taking anything away that would help our youth grow up. All that stuff never hurt us. We start trying to regulate all this crap that isn't broke, and this is is what happens.

in the immortal words of pogo possum:" we have met the enemy and he is us "

How does work as an outdoor/gun writer affect your view of the world?