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Proof the TSA really does look at those X-ray scanners - at least in Boston
By adamg on Tue, 07/31/2007 - 2:34pm
A man from Charlotte, NC was arrested at Logan this morning on charges he tried bringing a loaded gun on a Northwest flight to Detroit. According to the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, a TSA screener noticed the weapon inside the man's carry-on briefcase as it passed through a scanner:
... Inside the black leather bag, State Troopers found a Colt Mk IV .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun loaded with five rounds of ammunition. ...
John C. Megelich, 53, was released on $2,500 bail. The Herald reports his lawyer says it was all a misunderstanding - he'd intended to put the gun in a safe before he left North Carolina for Boston (in a car).
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Comments
NC/MA Eeks!
And for the record, everyone, I'm in Raleigh, not Charlotte. I'm choosing to pretend that wouldn't happen here.
I hear there are gun-toting Republicans here, but I have yet to meet any. Luckily, I'm hanging out in the wrong circles for that!
In other news, a woman with a STRONG Boston accent helped me at CopyMax yesterday. We got into a convo about Boston, then the guy behind us wearing a Red Sox t-shirt joined in. Both had moved down within the past year. You're all going to realize what a smartypants I am soon!!
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http://proactivebusybody.com
I hear ya.
Damn those gun-toting, North Carolina Republicans. Killing nice young men like this before they even get the chance to beat the crap out of their girlfriends (or worse).
If I were you, I'd be more worried about the knife-toting truck drivers from North Carolina who get their rocks off by stalking young girls through suburban neighborhoods.
But, I'm funny that way.
Please forgive my non-"progressive" mindset.
One more thing
I hear there are gun-toting Republicans here, but I have yet to meet any. Luckily, I'm hanging out in the wrong circles for that!
Do you realize how closed-minded, intolerant, and bigoted a statement that is? I'm guessing no.
Sounds like the Dems plan to fight Al Qaeda
"I'm choosing to pretend that wouldn't happen here."
OK, make that three more things
Give this a read. Here's the closer, in case you've prejudged anything I link to be some right-wing nut-job blather, far below your level of "standards".
It never hurts to try to learn a little more about the things you don’t like and the people you don’t agree with, you may find out you didn’t know enough about them to have an opinion in the first place.
It's called expanding your horizons and learning about the world around you.
My Goodness
You certainly have thrown a lot into attacking that first comment. You must be terribly frightened of jokes you don't get, assertions that there are exceptions to serotypes, and anecdotes about the local copy shop. I think the advice in your last comment is brilliant in its way, and I admire your willingness to come and express your view to what you seem to perceive as the opposing view. Exposing yourself to ideas different then your own is the only way to really learn anything. Still, all of us need to check that fear that causes us to start hurling accusations and statistics three and four at a time before the other side of the table can get a word in edgewise.
Oh and thanks for all the links.
A Little More
Look, the truth is that my experience with people with guns is limited. Guns scare me. In many of the places I've lived (Atlanta, Memphis, Boston), guns are often in the wrong hands. It's definitely possible to have responsible people who are interested in shooting guns for other purposes besides crime, but my experience has definitely been more skewed towards that crime-thing.
The way that article was written, it described someone who tried to bring "a loaded [hand]gun on a Northwest flight to Detroit." To me, that DOES match a stereotype that may or may not be true. Whatever the case, carrying around a loaded handgun in a piece of luggage isn't something I think is a good idea. When I think of someone who is doing that, I think of someone I don't want to be friends with. Sorry, that's really the truth.
When I lived in Indiana, I knew people who were hunters. It was while I lived there that I came to realize that for many people, shooting for sport is something they were brought up doing. They don't do it because they are angry or evil. They do it as sport. I learned to accept that. I still will never do it, but I learned that there are some very good people who do this as a hobby.
This guy didn't sound like one of them. His choice was (IMHO) pretty stupid. That's the root of my first statement - the one that upset you.
Katy, good thing they kept the world safe from your moisturizer!
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http://proactivebusybody.com
I've been here for three years, but...
I'm from NC. Your "gun-toting Republicans" don't all look like the Red State Update boys www.travisandjonathan.com/RedStateUpdate . You have no idea who owns a gun until it comes up in conversation. Chances are if they are male and raised in the state, they've at least fired a gun. Most women from progressive families have as well. Doesn't make them assholes, doesn't make them Republicans, doesn't make them rednecks. Doesn't mean they're not, either. It certainly doesn't mean they're big-rig-driving psycho child-killing rapists. That shit isn't cultural.
There are things I hate about the South and the prevalence of guns is one of them. But it drives me crazy to have Massholes pretend that incompetence, racism, random acts of violence, homophobia, and sexism don't happen here.
Do you really think that Logan's security is catching every knife, gun, and half-full Nalgene that someone forgets is in their carry-on? Bless your heart, you ain't got the sense the Good Lord gave a 'possum.
-Rachel Anne
Yep, you've got me pegged!
Do you realize how closed-minded, intolerant, and bigoted a statement that is? I'm guessing no.
Yeah, I'm a closed-minded asshole. You've really got me pegged.
I'm amazed again and again by two things. First, the assumptions people make about what they read from others online. Second, the attitudes people have about whatever group they are not in. In this instance, I'm talking about the view that many northerners have about what is going on in the south. I have lived in the north, the south, and the Midwest. I have observed prejudice and marginalization in every location I have ever lived. What I don't abide is people who have lived in only one of those areas spewing uninformed stereotypes about people from other areas. Even some people who grew up in one area of the country then try another area can be closed-minded. They don't like the new place because it's not normal to them. Their idea of normal is too established.
What I'm saying is that in most populated areas, there are wonderful and enlightened people to be found. The rule in statistics is that there are always more within ground differences than between group differences when comparing any two populations, and I have found that to be true.
Wow. I don't even feel defensive when I read that I've been called "closed-minded, intolerant, and bigoted" by an online stranger. It's so contrary to everything I've ever heard about myself. Not that I'm infallible, but boy, not how people generally perceive me. I'm a little shocked by the vitriol though. Hit a nerve, did I?!
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http://proactivebusybody.com
Hey...
I'm not the one responding to a story about a licensed gun owner (albeit an absent-minded one) by saying "Eeks!", as if there was something scary about the story linked there.
Nor am I the person who considers him or herself "lucky" for not ever having met a "gun-toting Republican", as if some terrible fate would befall you if that ever happened.
BrucemB, Get a life.
BrucemB, Get a life.
TSA
Those TSA types are definitely tougher in some airports than in others. For instance, on a recent flight out of Pensacola, FL, I was going to be asked to remove the splint I am currently wearing while my badly broken arm heals, and they confiscated the Cetaphil moisturizer that I accidentally packed into my carry-on bag (I thought, "Why does my toiletries bag seem so empty?" I forgot that we are not actually allowed to bring toiletries on planes anymore.), but they didn't take my matches away! I could've set my shoes on fire and caused a big catastrophe. But no, they took my moisturizer away.
Oh, and I am from North Carolina, also in Raleigh. Does this make me a Match-Toting North Carolinian?
Why he wasn't caught at the Charlotte airport
It's because he drove to Boston from North Carolina, which I learned last night. I've changed the original post to reflect that.
Casual Weaponry
Forgetting that you put a gun somewhere bespeaks a certain casual attitude toward weaponry that is more than a little disturbing. In the military, losing track of guns can result in delayed promotions at best, or even courts marshall.
I say this as somebody who knows how to shoot a gun, and was raised with guns in the house. My parents were always very strong about unloading the weapons when they got home, storing them out of the reach of small children, and even removing pieces of them and hiding them so their curious and mechanically inclined offspring could not reassemble and load them.
What She Said
Right, casual attitude towards weaponry. That makes him seem ignorant and like someone I don't want to know.
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http://proactivebusybody.com