All of the members of Gun Nuts’ staff have received their press credentials for the 2011 SHOT SHOW in Las Vegas, which means we’ll be able to give you live updating content from the show floor this SHOT SHOW.
But that’s not what this post is about.
I’m not flying to Vegas. I would rather drive the 1,131 miles to Las Vegas over the course of a couple days than put up with the TSA’s “Enhanced Shenanigans”. I don’t like bombs on my airplanes, and I theoretically like the concept of airport security. I don’t like little ol’ grannies and small children being subjected to enhanced screening, and I don’t want someone looking at my junk or really anyone’s private parts when it’s been proven that those types of screenings don’t do diddly for preventing terrorism. You know what I would like to see? Bomb sniffing dogs. Bomb dogs actually work. I’d much rather see every person and every carry on item sniffed by a dog than these stupid scanners or “enhanced pat-downs”.
But that’s what this has come down to. The only way this is going to change sadly enough is to hurt the airlines in the wallet until they demand that the federal government change their idiotic policies. Until the TSA either changes their modus operandi entirely or is disbanded, I will only fly as an option of last resort. I will drive everywhere I can.
I guess the terrorists really have won.
Think of all the great opportunities to shoot at different venues along the way!!! I think a Gun Nuts Road Trip would be fun to read about.
The real advantage to driving is you can bring back all sorts of cool toys without trying to figure out what you can and can’t take on the airplane.
Additionally if you have a car that is fun to drive the time is well spent.
Hurt the Ailines? That’s kind of a naive approach, the Feds will just bail them out by getting us all deeper in debt.
I was actually thinking just that as I wrote this, but the alternative is “get the government to act rationally” which is even more far fetched.
The government has a mentality that we’re all criminals, we just haven’t been caught yet. They want the US to be one big prison camp so they can keep us in line more efficiently.
Other advantage is your luggage won’t take a side trip to Istanbul along the way.
Sadly, I think Witt is right, with this current bunch in charge anything could happen, remember, Obama thinks we are the “enemy” already, I wouldn’t put it past him to declare war on “the Enemy” here in the US.
These are some strange times folks, when before 08 did you hear people, even celebrities and politicians, openly admitting they were Socialists, Communists, Progressives, whatever with such pride in it?
Scary it be for sure.
While I don’t particularly like the guy, this is hardly an appropriate subject for Obama bashing. It’s not like he sits in the Oval Office sending Presidential Orders to the TSA to “touch America’s junk”.
I’m with Caleb on this one. I used to love flying as a kid, and as I got older, taller, and wider, I found it more uncomfortable but still fun.
Today, I will only fly as a last resort. I refuse to support such ineffectual measure by submitting to them. It’s not politically correct, but we need to adopt Israeli profiling techniques. It actually works.
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Ben Franklin
The terrorist and the anti-gun must be the same group of government social behavioral scientists as their cure is always the same ‘its the fault of the law abiding people,they are to blame.Lets screw with them’
They must be learning something from the pro gun group though because I have not heard a call to ban any assault planes yet or planes that can carry more than ten people and for the time being you don’t need a flying permit,but you may still be viewed with a suspicious eye if you try boarding a flight wearing a parachute.
Well all of us people choosing the driving route will spur the hotel industry across the country.
Also the the hambuger joints and gas stations. By driving we are helping the economy.
Bomb dogs only stay on point for about 15-20 minutes at a time. Then they have to take a break. They work, if there is a threat, not as a general measure.
So give me an army of bomb dogs that work in 20 minute rotating shifts. I’m pretty sure it would be cheaper than all of this mess.
Cost of Bomb-sniffing dog = ~$10,000
Cost of Body Scanner = ~$150,000
Customs and Border guys manage to have beagles sniff incoming luggage for foods and it works quite well. I don’t feel safer because some tattooed dude with a G.E.D and a $29,000/year job is manning a TSA checkpoint. TSA is a false sense of security.
Being the frazzled owner of a loveable PITA beagle, getting the once-over by ‘ol Snoopy does not inspire a warm feeling of security. But maybe that’s just me 8^).
Couple it with a measure of (gasp) profiling performed by qualified and intelligent people and we may be getting somewhere. I’ll be doing a lot of driving in the meantime.
Screw profiling. How about people get over the fact that someone can blow up a plane. People can blow up anything, a plane isn’t special. The only reason to have any security on a plane is so people can’t hijack them and take them somewhere – and I don’t think there’s a group of passengers in the world who are going to sit still and let that happen again.
A couple of days to cover 1,131 miles? Pansy. 😉
I stopped flying years ago. If I can’t drive there, I don’t go. The terrorists wanted to disrupt our system and they have. When we give up our liberties (that my forefathers fought for all the way back to the Revolution) then we are the losers.
Last August I drove 1030 miles to Orlando just to avoid the TSA, at that time it was only shoes and belts.
Well they certainly have gotten a little more kinky since then.
Well said, Caleb!
As for me, I’ve told my employer that I’ll cheerfully accept travel assignments but that I will not fly under any circumstances during the current security theater regime.
The perv-scanners and gate-rape system simply does not work as well as magnetometers and the explosive sniffing machines that were being used previously. Furthermore, the claim that the images can’t be saved has been proven fraudulent several times.
Please write your congressman and Senators and demand that this system be abolished.
Today my wife left to go overseas from DFW (Dallas- Ft. Worth). The only place at DFW with the body scaners is the international terminal. When she went through the porno michines were turned off. Everybody went through the regular metal detector. One pilot did not go through a metal detector. He followed an airport police officer to a private table where his carry on got the once lightly treatment. Maybe he was one of the armed pilots. I don’t know.
Hat’s off to ya! On the plus side, you will have no problem transporting firearms. Just be sure not to drive one of those new electric cars – probably not many outlets in the desert 🙂
Personally I don’t give a crap about them saving my naked pic with those scanners, what worries me is the radiation you are getting bombarded with from head to toe, and if you fly frequently it just compounds the problem. There is no “safe” level of radiation exposure, even Xrays for medical reasons are a calculated risk. And hopefully the benefits outweigh the risks, add some more radiation at the airport, and even more at home (there are several “Xray vans” using that same technology as the airport scanner rolling around somewhere in the US) and even more at the dentist office. And if you are a Trucker you sometimes get zapped again at weigh stations, it varies but some now also use the X ray scan to check truck contents. You are part of the truck contents as well getting nuked!
And then people wonder why the cancer rates are climbing? Really?
When planning your drive, don’t forget that Bass Pro Media Day at the Range is on Monday, prior to SHOT itself. Hands’-on experience with the new stuff is pretty cool.