Strange but true:
Passengers flying Delta Airlines can bring their firearms and ammunition if they are checked in luggage and not carried in the cabin of the plane. However, sparklers used by children to celebrate July 4 are strictly prohibited by the airline — no exception.
While passengers get their nether regions scanned, have their shampoo confiscated and are forced to take off their shoes in the name of air security, the Transportation Security Administration allows firearms and bullets to be transported as long as they are packed in luggage.
The deadly shooting at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport on Friday left many confused and frustrated about the safety laws — or lack thereof — about checking and transporting firearms and the security of baggage claim areas.
“This clearly is a gaping hole in the security process that we need to close,” U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told The Palm Beach Post on Saturday. After the shooting, she issued a statement calling it, “another disturbing moment in our nation’s ceaseless struggle with gun violence.”
Esteban Santiago took full advantage of his right to transport firearms on passenger aircraft early Friday afternoon, loading his 9mm handgun in the men’s bathroom of Terminal 2 of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport baggage claim area of Delta after flying in from Alaska via Minneapolis on the airline.
He came out of the bathroom looking to kill, taking five lives and wounding six others before surrendering to police. A veteran of the conflict in Iraq, Santiago has a history of mental illness. Delta did not return phone calls for comment.
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Gov. Rick Scott said at the chaotic scene at the airport on Friday that he never wants such a shooting to happen again in Florida. But when pressed on gun policy for air travelers, he deferred: “It’s not time to be political.”
Wasserman-Schultz, a Florida Democrat, said it is indeed time to address the issues presented by Santiago's rampage: the safety of the airport baggage claim area, the ability for passengers to travel with packed heat and whether to curtail the right of individuals with mental health problems to possess firearms.
‘Not political’
“These are not political questions, these are security issues,” she said. “There is no question a review is necessary.”
Wasserman-Schultz said possibly air passengers should ship their guns to their destination in another way or be prohibited from carrying ammunition when traveling with a gun. At the very least, the congresswoman said lawmakers need to examine the process in which a passenger is reunited with a firearm after a flight.
“I can’t image getting push-back from my colleagues who are pro-Second Amendment on returning a firearm in a secure area and not near other passengers,” she said.
The lawmaker said security measures at airports have been increased in response to other incidents, such as when British citizen Richard Reid tried to light a bomb in his shoes with a lighter on a flight to Miami shortly after 9-11. The safety of baggage claim areas at airports has been a concern since the terrorist attack, she said.
“When people travel internationally, the baggage claim is behind security. That is something we need to take a look at,” Wasserman-Schultz said. “It is a matter of investing the resources in order to take steps we need to take to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.”
Some are calling for increased security to prevent such incidents at airports.
"Airports are now clearly the No. 1 soft target, and are naked and totally unprotected," according to travelers group FlyersRights.org in a statement Saturday. The group called for emergency measures "to prevent more lives from being lost," including banning live ammunition in checked baggage and airport perimeter security to detect weapons and explosives.
On Saturday, the union for TSA officers, the American Federation of Government Employees, pushed for increased training for officers. The attacks at LAX, New Orleans and now Fort Lauderdale highlight the need “to improve the security of passengers, TSA officers, and airport and airline personnel,” said the union’s president J. David Cox in a written statement.
Congress goes back into session on Monday. Wasserman-Schultz said her first order of business is to discuss the issue with Democratic leadership and with the Department of Homeland Security.
The Florida Legislature, though, may be poised to increase gun access in airports.
State Sen. Greg Steube, a Republican from Sarasota and Manatee counties, has introduced SB 140 that would repeal existing gun bans on college campuses, in airport terminals, and in government meetings. He could not be reached for comment.
The FBI in Anchorage on Saturday said that it returned Santiago’s weapon to him, even though agents referred him to a mental health facility after he showed up in November at their office complaining of hearing voices and that the CIA was forcing him to watch ISIS videos.
Wasserman-Schultz said she wants to explore how states exchange information about individuals who have been involuntarily committed to mental health facilities and whether their gun rights need to be curtailed.
Weapons on planes
It’s not known how many gun-packing passengers are checking firearms before they board. But there are numbers on how many guns were seized by TSA agents when travelers tried to bring them on the plane in carry-on bags, and that number is climbing.
In 2015, the most recent year for which numbers are available, 2,653 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags across the country. That averages out to about seven a day, according to TSA, and a 20 percent increase since 2014.
Those are just the guns which screeners spotted before they were taken onto planes. There’s evidence they could be missing plenty more.
In 2015, TSA’s own undercover investigators smuggled banned weapons or even fake explosives through airport checkpoints – 95 percent of the time.
“We found layers of security simply missing,” said Homeland Security Inspector General John Roth in testimony before a Senate committee
In 2015, TSA caught a traveler at Orlando International Airport using checked luggage to hide two handguns, an unassembled rifle and ammunition. In Daytona, a 22-caliber firearm had been taken apart and its pieces hid in socket wrenches and a shaving kit. At Miami International, a loaded gun was discovered in a carry-on.
What about hunters?
Any ban on shipping guns in luggage would hurt law-abiding hunters, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst in San Francisco.
“But I don’t think the TSA and FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) can ignore what happened. How many airline passengers today are worried that they are vulnerable?” he said. “This guy found a way to exploit a weakness in the system.”
Santiago is also not the first to kill using weapons in checked baggage. In 1972, three members of the Japanese Red Army terror group retrieved guns and grenades from their bags after landing in Tel Aviv, Israel, and killed 26 people.
“This guy followed the script from 1972,” said Jeffrey Price, an expert in aviation security who teaches at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Price said that banning guns in luggage might have prevented Friday’s attack but wouldn’t stop a determined killer.
“What’s to stop him from driving to the airport, parking his car, getting his gun and going into the airport and shooting people?” Price said.
Top 10 airports for gun seizures in 2015
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW): 153
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL): 144
George Bush Intercontinental Airport - Houston (IAH): 100
Denver International Airport (DEN): 90
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX): 73
Nashville International Airport (BNA): 59
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA): 59
Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL): 57
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS): 54
William P. Hobby Airport (HOU): 52
What’s the law?
- Florida bans passengers from carrying guns into the plane’s cabin.
- Guns can be packed in checked baggage, but must be unloaded and stored in a locked, hard container.
- Passengers intending to fly with firearms must first notify the airline at check-in, declaring the number of firearms and accompanying parts, such as magazines, firing pins, clips and bolts, none of which can be carried on.
- The one firearm-related item you can carry on is a rifle scope.
- The rules also apply to toy guns and replicas.
SOURCE: TSA
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