TSA Takes To Twitter To Celebrate Apprehension of Zero Terrorists, One Completely Legal Item

The TSA isn't great at catching terrorists. It isn't even great at catching contraband, failing nearly 100% of the time in audits of its efficiency. What it is good at is catching eye-catching things, most of them completely unrelated to providing safer travel.

Just recently, the TSA sent out a press release detailing the contraband it did manage to catch last year. The list has been republished by dozens of news agencies - none of which appear to have asked the TSA whether these seized oddities has prevented any terrorist acts.

Among the items, people either forgot were in their bags before going through the TSA checkpoint or deliberately tried to hide, were tasers, pepper spray canisters, bowling pins, demilitarized grenade canisters, hunting knives, brass knuckles, gardening tools and a wide variety of seemingly innocuous objects with sharp knives hidden inside.

What can obscure a deadly knife, you ask? Apparently, a lot. TSA confiscated an umbrella sword, lipstick that twists into a dagger and a comb with a knife hidden inside.

Patricia Mancha, a media spokesperson for TSA, said a couple of years ago in Houston, a man tried to get a meth balloon past a TSA checkpoint by hiding it in his breakfast burrito.

Great work, I guess, if that's all we want from the TSA: seizures of umbrella swords, lipstick knives, and meth burritos. In most cases, this sounds like the TSA is pouncing on novelty impulse purchases - items purchasers likely believe are so hilarious they can't truly be considered weapons. As for the meth burrito, that's a completely different criminal issue that has little to do with the reason the TSA was created. While it's understandable the TSA would prevent illegal items from being carried onto a plane, it's focus is supposed to be on terrorists, rather than drug smugglers who aren't planning on committing any terrorist acts.

But the TSA loves catching stuff that looks cool on the social media feed. Just recently, it announced on Twitter that it had prevented some terrorism by snagging an inert, but deadly looking, weapon.

Here's what the tweet says, with relevant parts in bold:

Today @TSA officers @SATairport discovered this 84 mm caliber weapon in checked luggage. It was undeclared, as required when traveling with firearms or weapons. Here's info about traveling with firearm.

The tweet linked to TSA guidelines on checking firearms and included the inexplicable hashtags #Monday and #SafetyFirst.

None of this was illegal, a fact the TSA was soon apprised of, but not before it decided to trumpet its (unwarranted) seizure on the internet. As Emma Helfrich explains for The Drive offshoot The War Zone, the alleged contraband was not only legal, the person possessing it had followed the rules the TSA linked to in its premature ejaculation.

The weapon the TSA briefly declared victory over was a Carl Gustaf 84mm recoilless rifle. Developed by Saab, the weapon" possessed by this traveler had been rendered inoperable and safe for travel. The passenger was taking the inactive weapon to the Las Vegas SHOT (Shooting and Hunting Outdoors Trade) show.

Here's how this went for the TSA:

On Monday, January 16 at 12:42 P.M. likely shortly after the weapon was confiscated, the @TSA_SouthWest Twitter account shared a post saying that they had discovered the weapon and claimed that the owner had neglected to declare it at the check-in counter when checking his luggage as TSA requires. This process allows the airline to openly communicate with TSA, informing them of any checked items on their upcoming outbound flights that would otherwise be a cause for concern if not reported.

TSA's Southwest wing decided it needed to score some internet points. The agency was so happy to have seized non-contraband, it couldn't wait for all the fact to come in before awarding itself a win via its Twitter account.

Once the facts came in, the TSA had to start playing defense.

The TSA's tweet not only included a photo of the Carl Gustaf tucked away in a padded hard-shell case, just as their guidelines require, but a follow-up post shared by the agency a day later walked back the undeclared' statement. TSA admitted that the owner is now confirmed, as Express News reports, to have properly checked and declared the luggage containing the weapon with the help of the airline he'd be flying with.

While it's nice the TSA walked back its declaration, the better move would have been to be sure of all the relevant facts before making unsubstantiated claims on social media. And this apology is meaningless to the person traveling with the weapon - one who followed all of the TSA's rules just to see their travel plans derailed by an agency that decided to issue tweets first and ask questions later. When The War Zone asked for an explanation, it received some exonerative bullshit in response - a statement that said the weapon's owner was to blame for surprising the TSA with their legally checked rifle.

In the end, out of an abundance of caution," as TSA described it in their tweet, the passenger was directed to re-book a different flight to Nevada and leave his weapon in TSA's possession for a local family member to come and pick up. When contacted by The War Zone to ask why the passenger couldn't still fly with his demilitarized Carl Gustaf after everything was resolved, a TSA southwest spokesperson replied as follows:

The passenger did everything correctly, but TSA Officers were not aware the passenger declared the item. TSA recommends that if someone is traveling with large caliber weapons or similar items that they coordinate with TSA either a day or two prior to travel or allow enough time prior to the flight for TSA to validate the information/paperwork provided. These days with computers and graphics, our officers are required to validate paperwork provided with items such as these.

Even if passengers do everything right, the TSA apparently believes it's justified in treating them like they did everything wrong. Not only did it fire off an opportunistic tweet that ultimately advertised its inability to do its job right, it separated a passenger from their flight and their legally owned property.

And I don't even know what to make of the last sentence of the TSA's statement, which seems to imply tech advances have made it more difficult for TSA agents to stay on top of checked baggage paperwork.

All of this is extremely dumb. All the TSA needed to do was wait until the facts were in before making extremely online declarations about its security work. Law enforcement agencies like these often insist the public wait for all the facts to come in before passing judgment, but - as is shown here - are never willing to hold themselves to the same standard. The TSA was completely in the wrong but it was the person who followed all the rules that ended up being punished for mistakes they didn't commit.