Texas Tech fans are known for their finger-gun salutes and “Wreck’em slogan.” It appears however that the TSA training does not include such common displays. When Diana Durkin recently returned to the University, she spotted another fan in line at the airport security for William P. Hobby airport in Houston and gave him the Texas Tech salute. She was immediately pulled out of the line by alarmed TSA personnel but after being delayed and questioned, she was allowed (this time) to leave with only a warning.
It is certainly good to see that, while continuing to fail to find most guns and explosives in tests, TSA can still seize finger guns when brandished openly at security checkpoints.
Of course, we have seen students suspended or expelled for finger guns (here and here and here and here and here).
Durkin recounted the scene on social media:
In the airport security line and I see someone wearing a Texas Tech hoodie and I look at them and do the gun hand signal because wreck em amiright
tsa is now pulling me aside to talk to me :((
She was given a full patdown and lecture.
Thank God. Crisis averted. This could have been a metaphorical massacre.
Did her finger have the safety on? Who brings a loaded finger metaphor to the airport anyway? Did it have a magazine limited to 6 rounds? You should never point your finger at anything you are unwilling to shoot.
Can that violent “Hook ’em Horns” be far behind? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Hookemhorns.jpg
Most TSA employees probably have good intentions and – like any bureaucracy – simply follow orders from superiors. What’s missing is the constitutional training and lack of constitutional oversight.
These well-meaning TSA employees probably aren’t adequately trained by their superiors that their oath of office is a “restraint” on government power as outlined by our Bill of Rights. Their superiors probably were never properly taught those constitutional restraints either.
The U.S. Supreme Court also has a duty to clearly define constitutional boundaries. Congress also has a duty, under Article I, to makes all laws necessary to enforce the U.S. Constitution.
Sometimes it’s simply good people – with rent or a mortgage – working in a terrible system! The system needs to be fixed.
On further reflection (and after seeing her picture on her twitter feed), this is probably much ado about nothing: I’ll bet the TSA guy was just looking to chat up a cute girl for fun.
Git yer guns up Red Raiders!
The TSA personnel involved and the TSA Director should have already been perp-walked for abuse of the power of government against the people, committing crimes of high office under color of authority and denying constitutional rights to Americans. The TSA description of duties is “arrest them all and let the trend-setting, rogue, liberal judges sort them out”. The next step will be to arrest every person with eyes because they looked around the terminal to “case the joint”.
Who has the power in America, the commandeered government or the people?
TSA employees are mostly bullies and cretins – another nail in the ever growing police state. It’s sad how we accepted shuffling slowly through the lines in our socks and submitting to searches.
Dogs would be more efficient and probably brighter. Flying has become an ordeal and we are not any safer.
Did anyone read the article? If you ask me, she’s a snowflake. I’m no fan of TSA, but I’d recommend she not do that salut in an airport in Europe, cause they don’t know about weird American college rituals and I’m pretty sure they’d pull her out of line for questioning too.
I wonder what they think they’ll accomplish by “questioning?” “Are you planning to kill that guy with your finger?” “Is your finger loaded?” Absurd!
Of course it is absurd! But you can’t make bomb jokes either….
Debbie Barnhart – my finger is always loaded, I grew up in Montana.
This is what can happen when the sinister forces of boredom, badge-heaviness, incompetence, and inexperience merge.
Makes me wonder if giving someone “the finger” will remain protected speech!
When I drive by the airport I flip them all “the bird”. The bird is the word. There was a song by that name back in the ’60s.
If your trip is under 1200 miles then drive a car. Avoid the war. If you can take a train then choose that mode. Sailboats are better. But if you are up itShay Creek without a paddle and have to fly a commercial plane then keep your fingers curled. After you pass the TSA guy but just out of reach, then cut a large loud fart. In his or her direction.
It’s sad to know the TSAtards and their Gestapo overlords have become more asinine and less effective over time. And that we’re saddled with them forever.
The ‘tards are especially bad and entitled in the DC area. The are often poorly educated minority employees who take great pleasure in exercising their positional power in hassling The Honest and Tax Paying Traveler who pays their salaries, all while knowing their jobs are secure with a union that will back them in whatever ridiculous situations their stupidity gets them into.
I went through screening recently in London and was pleasantly surprised how efficient and friendly the UK’s TSA-equivalents are. It was as refreshing as such a situation could be.
True. Dulles is so bad it makes you embarassed to be American. The passportand customs people in Frankfurt Germany speak better English than in DC. And they’re not that good in Frankfurt! I just flew via Houston and found it to be way better than Dulles. The TSA there was very kind. (I was shocked.)😀
The worst part is the incident took place in Houston TX. I wonder how removed from society sare these TSA etc. incompetents. If they didn’t recognize the Finger Gun Salute what will do they do to Hook ’em Horns from University of Texas Longhorn fans Or a couple of paratroopers do the Leg Drop salute with one hand imitating a parachute .then wiping itself clean.
IS there anything TSA can do properly? Well think of it this way if ATF is folded into real law enforcement TSA can take their place as the new CMA which actuallmeans California Maritime Academy but also signifies the slogan for the US Merchant Marine Academy … Couldn’t Make Annapolis. It will do until Couldn’t Make Police Academy gets a better set of initials.
But in Texas? What will happen if they have to deal with some foreigners.?
Now the real reason is obvious ….. cute blonde-itis is more fun than doing their job.
Either way it means low on the pecking order. Smash ’em.
The worst part is the incident took place in Houston TX. I wonder how removed from society sare these TSA etc. incompetents. If they didn’t recognize the Finger Gun Salute what will do they do to Hook ’em Horns from University of Texas Longhorn fans Or a couple of paratroopers do the Leg Drop salute with one hand imitating a parachute .then wiping itself clean.
IS there anything TSA can do properly? Well think of it this way if ATF is folded into real law enforcement TSA can take their place as the new CMA which actuallmeans California Maritime Academy but also signifies the slogan for the US Merchant Marine Academy … Couldn’t Make Annapolis. It will do until Couldn’t Make Police Academy gets a better set of initials.
Either way it means low on the pecking order. Smash ’em.
Now that’s just d*** funny. But doesn’t she know all bullets shot straight up in the air like that eventually have to come down? She needs to move two steps to the left to avoid being hit.
TSA has no idea of cultural norms or a sense of humor. You would think they were all raised in Plato’s Cave.
I really wish I had thought of that one!!!!!
You would think they were all raised in Plato’s Cave.
Nicely done Paul. 🙂 Your post reminded me of the fable, The Blind Men and the Elephant; as these TSA agents go about their inspections and pat downs.
Paul,
Speaking of Plato, maybe a small, community college will start a trend, making critical-thinking a thing.
these books ‘are for everyone. They were different people in different centuries, but at the end, they’re thinking about the same problems.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/why-one-inner-city-college-bringing-back-plato?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9935398&utm_content=newsletter(9935398)&utm_term=newsletter
Check the IP, sure this is a joke. Critical thinking can get you in a lot of trouble these days. The firemen will be coming.
Well, I am tempted to sarcastically say that I am sooo very glad that the efficient and cautious TSA is checking out suspicious people!
But, the more I think about it, would I feel the same way if the Finger Gun Perp was wearing a burka, instead of being a cute little blonde.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Fly the friendly skies?
That hasn’t been true since the employees bought the company what three decades ago?