Originally Posted by
Boggie Dog
The obvious scenario is that this TSA screener place a weapon in his lunch pail in order to mask its presents in an attempt to transfer the weapon to a person who had already cleared security. The security implications in this matter are far more severe than has been let on and the TSA screener involved should be subjected to a very vigorous investigation and interrogation. As a manager there is no way that I would allow this TSA screener anywhere near an airport until this matter is fully investigated and resolved.
Please do not take what I am about to say as a defense of the individual in this case.
The most reasonable scenario (based upon statistics), is that this guy was irresponsible, and forgot the item was in his bag. A less reasonable scenario is that he had either the intent to carry the firearm for a personal reason (defense, etc), or that the individual had nefarious intent to pass the item on to another person as described above.
The security implications are serious, I agree 100% with you, and there should be a complete investigation into what happened - the individual should be prosecuted (if applicable) and punitively addressed according to agency regulations. This is an unacceptable occurrence, and there should be consequences, however, leaping to speculative theories without investigation serves none of us.