Which of the three is eyecue?

Are you saying that TSA is enforcing local law? Seems that would change the character of the Administrative Screening limited to WEI as the Federal Law allows for.

Bullets are real. Guns are real. Grenades are real. Replicas of them could be confused for the real thing.

A light saber is a fictitious weapon. A replica of a light saber cannot rationally be confused for a real one because there isn't one.

I think you're giving TSA to much credit.

Based on my travels in the past year, I must say that DEN TSA has supplanted EWR TSA as the most annoying, most nonsensical, most irritating, most unconstitutional TSA in my list of "bottom 10" TSA groups. You must be one of the reasons for my prioritization. Are you the one who thought it was rude to say my genitals are a sensitive area?

WAY too much credit. It's painfully obvious that the "weapon" status was a pathetic excuse for a TSA employee's attempted theft of what is admittedly a pretty cool cane.

They probably didn't realize exactly who Mr. Mayhew was.

eyecue, do you know what the local Denver ordinance about anything remotely resembling weapons is? And why TSA personnel at DEN are charged with enforcing it? Shouldn't violators of local statutes (like municipal rules governing photography, for example) be turned over to city LEs for handling?

Or do you mean the DEN FSD has a special interpretation of TSA rules that prohibits even a fantasy device or a photo on a T-shirt? If that's the case, is there a way for pax to check ahead of time to prepare for 'extra-strict' rules that are not documented on the TSA website and are only enforced at a particular airport?

A) TSA is not tasked with - nor empowered to - enforce state or local laws.

B) A lightsaber cane does not resemble any sort of weapon, because lightsabers are not real. There is no scare factor involved at all, because there is no such thing as a lightsaber, therefore a lightsaber cane does not resemble a weapon.

Are soccer balls prohibited because they resemble the Death Star?

Maybe not, but a toy Death Star might get extra scrutiny...

I was starting to second guess myself about light sabers and looked it up in wookiepedia. Looks like they do exist, after all. The interwebz say so.

I wonder how that situation would have turned out had it been a ordinary citizen and not a famous actor with a large twitter following. Actually I'm 99.9% sure I know how it'd have turned out.

What bothers me is the idea that TSA took a man's cane away from him even for five minutes. TSA HAS to figure out how to stop putting people with physical limitations at risk of a fall or worse.

This entire thread could be boiled down to this one question and the inevitable response:

Mayhew was interviewed on CNN this morning. Turns out social media did play a roll and the path from it to the farkwits was shorter than thought. He took the picture, typed up the tweet, then as he hit the "send" button stated to them, "I'm tweeting this." Suddenly the dangerous weapon they had assured him he was not going home with turned back into a cane and it was returned.

Interestingly, in the CNN interview Mayhew states that TSA had already determined that they were NOT going to let him take it, and told him "You're not taking this home, it's not going back to Dallas."

Then suddenly they reverse course and allow it after he mentioned Twitter. And they also specifically asked him to tweet that the cane had been given back to him.

So how does this square with your above comment?

Just like their magic garbage cans convert dangerous binary liquid explosives into harmless water...

Hmm, I may have to leave my hands behind on my next flight
considering I have some serious... ahem... martial arts skills.

How will TSA decide if I can fly or not with my credible weapons?

LOL

Depends on the scary factor.

Apparently that is more important to TSA than actual threats.

Just as it always has been. They can't actually make you be safe, but as long as the people feel safe, its a job well done.

It has occurred to me that some people should never leave their own houses, never mind fly on an airplane. It must suck to live with so much fear all the time.

Mike

Holy flying spaghetti monsters are you really saying that the determination on what should be allowed through your checkpoint is what the LEAST RATIONAL PERSON on any potential flight would possibly find scary and disruptive????

Wow. Just... wow. Wow.

*speechless*

A practical demonstration of why TSA is AFU.

Flying spaghetti monsters would also be disruptive. TSA should obviously spend another $100 Billion to develop scanners to examine their naked noodles. @:-)

Zero disruption! Think of the children.

Dammit. Now they're going to do it and claim it's because "that's what the public wants," just because you said they "should."

Note to self: do not bring my "heavy duty sword cane" with me when traveling...
Google is your friend.

Hey, hey, let's keep religion out of it.



:D

Mike

I can not find it online. If I run across it again at work I will post it. This reminds me of when I went across the border and tried to bring something back that was not allowed in CA and ICE would not allow it. Federal was ok. State was not and ICE enforced it.

Obviously you did not read this whole thread. Take the example of someone yelling fire in a crowded theater, are people going to evalute the status of the person yelling it or are they going to panic?

Another nice straw man. TSA must hold classes on straw man debate techniques; too bad it seems to be the only part of their basic training that has any sort of adhesion whatsoever.

There was absolutely nothing remotely threatening about this device. It's a cane shaped like a lightsaber. It's a clear blueish-tinted lucite rod with a stylized handle. It causes no fear, it inspires no panic, and there is no "fire in a crowded theater" argument. Because lightsabers don't exist.

So, a more apt description would be someone shouting "DRAGON!" (or perhaps in this case, "OH NO! THE RANCOR!" would be more appropriate) in a crowded theater. Are people going to evaluate the status of the person yelling it or are they going to panic?

Thanks.

In the parallel example you provide (ICE enforcing CA law), could you have known about the CA law ahead of time? If I, for example, didn't live in CA, didn't know CA laws, but was returning across the border, were there any signs warning me that I couldn't take something forbidden in CA? Or do I find out when they confiscate it?

How would I, a passenger who lives in CA, know what the special DEN restrictions are (no light sabers) that will be enforced by TSA? Shouldn't I be able to find this all out (local city or FSD restrictions enforced by federal TSOs) on the TSA website? I've never researched municipal laws before flying and I don't know how to check on special FSD super-restrctions (although I think that information should be available to pax so they can prepare).

Are the special restrictive DEN/Denver rules that TSA enforces even displayed on signs at the checkpoint? Or is confiscation the only way the pax finds out?

I would suspect that very few passengers go to an airport expecting TSA to enforce special FSD rules or municipal rules that apply only at that airport.

I appreciate you looking at the website. It does bother me that even an experienced (and not lowest rank) TSO like yourself can't find information on the website. If you can't, how on earth are ordinary passengers supposed to?

Obviously, you can't get past the ridiculousness of your own suggestion.

If someone yelled "Oh my god! It's Chewbacca! And he has a lightsaber!" in a crowded theater the audience is going to tell that person to sit down and shut up, or get out.

Or are you suggesting that someone is going to be inspired to yell "Fire!" on an airplane or in a theater if they see a large man with a blue cane?

Admitting that you can't rationally defend this is the first step to recovery....

We actually have an example of how flyers are going to react to a delusional passenger just this week. Nobody panicked and the person was subdued... all without the intervention of the TSA or a FAM.

hehe. I thought I was alone in pasta adoration. ;)

The pastafarians are everywhere!

Seriously? What are you, four?

Fires exist. LIGHTSABERS DON'T.

If this was someone bring a toy gun on board, you MIGHT have a case. MIGHT, depending on the realistic appearance or lack thereof to a real gun. Maybe.

THIS. IS. A. PLASTIC. CANE. IT IS NOT EVEN A CHILD'S PLAYTHING!

I find it hard to believe that you're not being intentionally argumentative and obtuse for trolling and entertainment purposes.

Seeing as how I'm at work about 5 miles from HOU right now, you can't even claim local pasta primacy. ;)

May the sauce be with you!

and the holey cheeses with you

Thanks for not just flogging me with remarks. To answer and make my last post on this issue, I spoke to one of the supervisors in the picture. He advised that the item in question weighed about 4 lbs. So the original intent on questioning it was for its value as a bludgening item. As far as the Denver city police are concerned, a large number of them dont give a rats behind about enforcing the laws of the state or the city. This ordinance that I brought up is never used. There are some officers that will issue a summons for having a steak knife in your carry on. There are some officers that wont do anything about switch blade knives, brass knuckles or tasers. On most cases they will ask TSA (and this is going to start a fire here) what the passengers ATTITUDE is and go from there.

Just one more quick answer. It is a serious question. Are there scales for weighing potential bludgeons at the CP or did they guess? If there is as standard, is it on the web site or is it SSI? OK, that's two questions.

Chow Mein!