Originally Posted by
SnallaBolaget
Actually, it was more said to illustrate that properly trained airport security personnel can find hidden objects and "contraband" without the use of invasive pat-downs and a lot of machinery... In the case I was talking about, we had to remove any training ammo and/or live ammo from the soldiers, and also make sure they were "in compliance" with civilian as well as military regulations... I also said it to illustrate that if one of these soldiers had been carrying "worse" items, they too would have been found.
Actually, by focusing on innocuous items you're worsening the possibility that you find something truly dangerous, which is something that you would know if you didn't outright dismiss every actual security expert who weighs in on the subject.
Just to clarify - training ammo is actually "blanks" (i.e. no bullets, plastic or otherwise), but with considerably more gunpowder to facilitate the proper function of an automatic rifle even without the presence of a projectile to build up pressure (which works the reloading mechanism in an automatic rifle...). Besides, do you really think ammo is harmless without a gun to fire it with?? I hope you don't have kids or loved ones, if that's your take on ammunition...
You described the training ammunition as "mostly plastic", not me. Are you now changing your statement?
As far as the relative harmlessness of ammunition without a firearm, that much is true. While you could build your own firearm, you're not really going to achieve a ballistic flight out of a projectile without one. Sure you can make the powder burn by impacting the primer, but the projectile isn't anywhere near as dangerous without the barrel to channel the expansion of gasses and concentrate it into forward motion of the projectile. That's fact of physics, my friend, and a topic that I do know a lot about.
Knives and other souvenirs were actually not "stolen", as you put it, they were put in sealed plastic bags, marked with the soldier's name, and sent via checked luggage, for distribution by their officers upon arrival in their home country. Anything else, "mozgytog"?
-SB-
The typical mode of the TSA is to force people to abandon their property at the checkpoint, in some cases refusing to allow people to exit screening to put the item in checked baggage, secure it in their vehicle, or mail it to their home or other destination. The colloquial reference to such forced property abandonment as theft is perfectly apropos - especially since once this property is taken from its rightful owner, there is absolutely nothing preventing a TSA employee from keeping it for him or herself. Removing proeprty by force from the rightful owner for the personal gain of the taker is theft.
You didn't specify what was done with the property that you identified, and I made what I considered a reasonable inference given your description of your TSA-style search for items that are not a threat to aircraft.
Also, there is no reason to put my handle in quotation marks, as it is not a direct quotation of something that I posted, and the use of quotation marks for emphasis is incorrect grammar.