Is the actual headline. And it's one I find fault with. The mere presence of a gun in somebody's bag does not imply "smuggling".
As alien as it seems to us in the UK (and elsewhere), there are certain parts of the US where people think absolutely nothing of carrying a gun around with them all the time. I have little doubt that some percentage of these finds are just due to forgetfulness, and not to any malign intent.
jimsojim used the HTML doc title, which is always a legit option, and in this case the better one because it contains more information.
I have a hard time thinking I wouldn't be constantly mindful of the fact I had a gun on me, and would never pack one in a bag, but I'm not everybody and I have never carried everyday. There are parts of rural America and some cities where it is done as part of their every day carry and no one blinks an eye. So I could see it happening.
Last time I did it (this was before 2001 and the police state hysteria we're in now) all that you had to do was get a little sticker for the bags handle at the check in counter (they asked us to show that the gun was unloaded.)
Not even a big deal.
There is no history of guns leaping up, loading themselves and killing people.
This is still the case, post-2001. You bring the firearms in a locked, hard case and you show the gate agent that they are unloaded, then you lock the case in front of them and they put some stickers on it.
The only sketchy part is, you have to take a firearm out in the ticket line to show it to the gate agent, who has a hazy-at-best understanding of whether that particular firearm is loaded or not.
At airports I have had to mail back to myself a very nice engraved money clip multiple times. The reason? It has a 2" or so pocket knife type blade on it. Each time TSA treated me like I was trying to smuggle something when I put the clip in the bin for the xray machine. If I was trying to smuggle something I would not throw it in the bin with everything else.
One reason I've elsewhere referred to what's happening with skyrocketing legal concealed carry as a renorming, we're just returning to a not all that old normal.
As a gun owner, a CCW holder and a sometimes open carrier of firearms - privately and publicly - let me state in no uncertain terms: if you forget you are carrying a gun, you have no business carrying a gun.
I'm reminded of this story: A man accidentally had a loaded gun in his luggage, got past security, realized it in flight, and then reported himself afterward:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/loaded-gun-slips-past-tsa-scre...
Last time I flew it was almost mandatory to go through the body scanner. The time before that it was only every 10 people or so.
It's a truly amazing phenomena, no doubt part of the re-normalization of carrying guns (saw my first open carrier at Wal-Mart yesterday, that's newly allowed in Missouri as of a year or so), and the graying of America (a large majority of the people taking my Missouri required concealed carry class were older sorts).
But if you're e.g. reading this from California, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, etc. vs. the 43 states with shall issue or better concealed carry regiemes, you could easily know little to nothing about it.
You're right: most people simply don't mention it. In most of the US, guns are simply not a big deal.
I can't find any stats, but I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people killed by aggressive use of shampoo was close to zero.
A friend of mine tried to bring his gun through security. He had it in an outside pocket of his duffel bag and just forgot it was there. It's just another thing that you carry around with you. It seems lost on some people that these are deadly weapons and it may be good to treat them with a modicum of extra respect. It never occurs to my friend that someone could take his bag, discover the gun, and kill someone with it, even though he never would. That it could be a kid that shoots themselves or someone else in complete innocence. My friend is indeed absent-minded but I don't think that covers it fully. It is a certain mindset, and a fairly prevalent one especially in the South.
One clarification request: loaded if revolver, round in chamber otherwise?
Carrying requires a different mindset, and that mindset doesn't admit the sort of forgetfulness under consideration here. That's the main reason why I usually don't carry.
You would have to be absent-minded, but perhaps not quite as absent minded as you might think.
In some parts of the US (4% of Texans have a carry license) it's wallet, keys, phone, gun.
Someone may indeed include a firearm in their "EDC" but there should be a constant and sharp distinction between that item and all the rest.
If you are not hyper aware of a firearm you are carrying, you should not be carrying that firearm - no matter how routine it is.
I certainly put more awareness into my surroundings, which could be key to my using it successfully if needed.
You're acting like I treat my wallet and phone the same way I treat a pack of gum.
In three years, the were two instances of two different security guards whom forgot they were carrying guns when they went to the airport. It happens so much.
The only solution was to stop buying new ones.
Imagine they started confiscating wristwatches and you'll get an idea of how easy it is to be that "absent-minded."
The stat this article refers to is "catches", i.e. someone bearing a handgun without declaring it in this manner.
Any such error is troubling, but look at the stat in context: that's an average 7 occurrences out of an average of 2.2 million trips (emplanements) on an average DAY plus all the additional people who enter security to see people off and greet arrivals.
Funny, HN mods tend to correct headlines when it's not the same as the actual link's, but in this case they keep leaving it on like that. Is there any reason for the double-standards?
I found your own form of "moderation" of something you didn't understand amusingly childish.
You just check it at the counter, and they usually put a flag on the case to indicate it has been cleared (to make sure it's unloaded.)
I wonder how many of these are simply pieces where the flag was ripped off via the luggage transport system.