London-Gatwick's Security Bans 3-Inch Plastic Toy Soldier Gun from Plane
You know how occasionally we get soft and start being kind of nice to the TSA? As in how we sometimes admit that sure, the agency is rulebound to the point of irrationality like with the 3-1-1 nonsense, and yes, their agents intermittently engage in borderline sexual assault—but that we're all in this airport security thing together, and everyone is basically on the same team, and at least these airport security officials are our airport security officials? This might be one of those times.
Earlier this week, security officers at London's Gatwick Airport forced Julie Lloyd, 59, to snap off a 3-inch resin gun attached to a figurine she was trying to get through security, and to mail it ahead to herself in Canada. The figurine was a replica model soldier that Lloyd had purchased from a British military museum as a gift for her husband Ken Lloyd, 60, a retired police officer and former member of the Territorial Army in Britain. The reason the gun had to be snapped off the figurine is because it constituted, according to Gatwick Airport security officials, a "firearm."
Usually our inclination at this point would be to try to provide the Bigger Picture, like how there's a problem if security officials are so scared of using common sense that they say things like "see ma'am, the rulebook says firearms are banned in airports and this is clearly a firearm." But it's Friday and we already covered the levels-of-discretion debate in that intermittent-sexual-assault post. So if you're satisfied letting this one go with a chuckle and a "these people are too stupid to live," then so are we.
Though we can't help passing along one last comment from the story, this one from someone who works at the military museum where the figurine was purchased: "this does seem more than a little excessive." Isn't British understatement grand?
Full pic of the replica here.
[Photo: SWNS.com via Daily Mail]
Related Stories:
· Airport bans toy soldier's three-inch rifle from plane... because it's a safety threat [Daily Mail]
· London Travel [Jaunted]
· Airport News [Jaunted]
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