Mere Rhetoric: TSA's Idiotic Pilot Handgun Regulations Kept Classified, End With Accidental Firing On Flying Plane

It's so cute when urban blue state bureaucrats get involved with gun safety regulations:

Transportation Security Administration rules are to blame for the conditions leading up to an accidental discharge of a US Airways pilot’s pistol during landing, say airline pilots familiar with the program. On March 22, pilot James Langenhahn was stowing his Heckler & Koch USP .40, issued to him by the Department of Homeland Security... while his co-pilot prepared to land the plane. As he was placing the pistol... it discharged a single shot which exited the left side of the plane, doing little damage... Some pilots say it was an accident waiting to happen.
At issue is a highly unusual TSA requirement that pilots remove the guns from their belts and lock them up... a requirement that pilots say creates unsafe conditions. "The pilot was trying to lock his gun and remove the holster in an airplane going 300 miles per hour in preparation for landing and the padlock depressed the trigger," said a federal flight deck officer who declined to be identified. "TSA knew this could happen but didn’t get rid of the requirement."... It’s pretty obvious that nobody who knows anything about firearms had anything to do with setting up these procedures, because they would have instantly rejected them as unsafe... Pilots have been unable to criticize this arrangement publicly because the TSA had classified it; however, a group of federal air marshals met with the TSA last year to recommend that pilots carry their pistols in the same way that air marshals do.

Silencing dissent and actively incentivizing people not to point out security lapses is pretty much how the TSA runs things lately:

A passenger who went through an airport security checkpoint -- before remembering that he had a loaded gun -- is facing charges after going back to report his error, authorities said. Gregory Scott Hinkle, 53, of Davis, West Virginia, went through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport... he returned to the checkpoint and disclosed the weapon, authorities said. The TSA contacted airport police, who charged the man with possessing or transporting a firearm into an air carrier terminal where prohibited, a misdemeanor, and released him.

And not just lately - two years ago they were spending their time raiding and threatening to arrest teenagers who tried to publicize gaping holes in TSAs hackneyed and arbitrary security setup. Because setting up a system where people are better off not reporting flaws and oversights is the best way to catch and fix problems. Business consultants teach managers that all the time.

It's also a sign of a management that's really confident in the system they've set up. And with the rousing success they've had at airports like LAX - how could they now be proud? Now that direct flights are coming in from the UAE, we're more pleased than ever that TSA manages to catch almost 25 percent of the simulated bombs that go through LAX security. Less time stupidly slowing down passenger lines and incompetently serving up private data to identity thieves and more time worrying about explosives might not be the worst idea, yes?

References:
* TSA rules led to pilot’s gun firing in flight [Homeland Stupidity]
* Loaded gun slips through airport security [CNN]
* Q: Could Airport Security Suck Worse? [MR]
* Emirates to make LAX its third US gateway [Business Traveler]
* LAX TSA Misses 75% Of Fake Bombs, Lets People With Bad Boarding Passes On Airplanes [MR]
* Transportation security’s new blue-light special [LAT]
* TSA Traveler Website Exposed Private Citizens To Risk Of ID Theft [Consumerist]