Florida airport shooting raises questions about guns in baggage

What this article doesn't mention is that the shooter is an Army veteran who served in Iraq. It also doesn't mention that he was nearly incoherent when interviewed, and claimed the government invaded his brain with ISIS videos. In short, he's a few cards short of a deck. Not sure how his defense will play out.

“What’s to stop him from driving to the airport, parking his car, getting his gun and going into the airport and shooting people?”

John Smeaton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smeaton_(born_1976)

A simple ammo ban from luggage would stop this. If the ammo is rare (custom gun/handloads) they can ship that ahead of their trip.

If lithium ion rechargeable batteries can be banned on flights, then why in the world can't ammo?

Oh, yeah. Never mind. I forgot. The answer is "the NRA."

Letting the carnage commence...

“This guy found a way to exploit a weakness in the system,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst in San Francisco.

That is putting it mildly. A person out of his mind should not have had a gun. He did, however, follow the rules. Then he went into a restroom and loaded his gun, and then returned to the baggage area and blew people away. This "weakness" is a gapping hole. It is a monstrous hole. Monstrous in the stupidity that created it. Guns and ammo should not travel together. That should have been obvious, If they travel in separate containers but together the guns might as well be loaded.

Hunters can ship their ammo ahead to whatever lodges they are staying.

The bottom line is this person should not have had a gun in the first place. Thank again, NRA.

It isn't the NRA that says mentally ill people should have firearms. Everyone agrees that is a bad idea.

This all happened outside the "secured" area of the airport. Baggage claim is near the street, outside security checkpoints. This isn't odd. Bet this technique would have worked in almost any airport in the world.

It could have happened at any public location. Being an airport doesn't make it special, except for headlines.

He showed what one crazy person can do. Imagine what might have happened if a group of individuals had planned a terrorist attack around this loophole. They could have killed hundreds. Admittedly it wouldn't make sense to do so, but what else is new?

Seriously, it's a waste of time talking about how he did this and how it could have been prevented. Anyone could pull up in a taxi, walk into the same area and start plugging away. So, trying to fix this so it doesn't happen again is just a pipe dream

A couple of airlines have told me recently that I'm not allowed to put my camera in my suitcase out of safety concerns. Sorry, you guys, but as long as you allow my fellow passengers to pack along their guns and ammo, I'm gonna continue putting my camera in my suitcase.

You dont think ISIS is taking notes over this last incident? Get your priorities straight, people.

The NRA may say they agree that crazy people shouldn't have guns, but they also prevent any legislation that would do something about it. That is the trouble with the NRA, they are against any common sense legislation that could save lives.

Just another day in the USA.

LFRagain: "If lithium ion rechargeable batteries can be banned on flights, then why in the world can't ammo? Oh, yeah. Never mind. I forgot. The answer is "the NRA."

Exactly. And the morons that defend the NRA.

what is the point of banning weapons from being put into luggage? seriously?

there are no security checks when you walk into an airport before the boarding areas

seriously? are people that dim these days?

There was an armed TSA agent sitting at the entrance to the baggage area, as they are at all US airports, in addition to police wandering around eating donuts at airports,

The TSA agent and other police did nothing, diving under their desks or running away, because, as usual, police just form a perimeter and let the killing continue until someone runs out of ammo or an unarmed, courageous civilian stops the shooter. As usual, the shooter was out of ammo and was trying to get away, so the police caught him.

The police show up later to fill out paperwork and get their photos taken in full battle/swat gear for the press. The police do not protect, you have to protect yourself.

The only chance those poor people had was if another passenger was armed. The police are not going to save you.

A person out of his mind should not have had a gun.

It's more about a nation not at war where civilians should not have guns. The truth hasn't dawned yet.

“This guy found a way to exploit a weakness in the system,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst in San Francisco.

So he couldn't get off the plane, drive home, get his gun, drive back to the airport, walk into the unsecured baggage claim area, and shoot a bunch of people? The guy was nuts. Not much you can do about that. When I go to the airport I walk right past baggage claim to go to the check-in counter. Unless you must first go through a security check to get to baggage claim it won't do any good to change anything else about the "system".

He was "that insane" that he managed to get up in the morning, dress up, weave a plan on how to do the shooting, get both the car and the luggage in place, proceed with caution until he could definitely do the damage and only then he started acting. Insane people do not work that way. It was yet another failure of a national system as a whole.

The founding fathers got some things right, but one thing they got HORRIBLY, TRAGICALLY wrong was the 2nd amendment. Let the suffering continue...

There is already legislation against mentally ill people have firearms in the USA.

The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits any person from selling or otherwise transferring a firearm or ammunition to any person who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective” or “committed to any mental institution.” Such persons are prohibited from possessing firearms.

Look up: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922 18 U.S.C. § 922(d)(4). 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4).

However, there probably isn't a way to check that any mental patient has their license and firearms removed from their control. A suspicion of mental illness is not enough to take a way a constitutional right to bare arms. They must have been legally found "mentally defective."

The guy visited an FBI station asking for help against being forced to watch terrorist videos. They called the police who got the mental health people involved in Alaska.

This isn't an airport firearm issue. It is a public location with firearms issue. There is nothing different about the way he transferred the firearm from 1 place to another - could have driven a vehicle to a mall. The airport aspect has NOTHING to do with this crime.

Being from Alaska, having and using a firearm is a personal safety thing. There are lots of dangerous animals there. Alaskans are extremely practical people. Firearms are a way of life there more than anywhere else I've visited. I do live in hunting country. It is a family pastime. Everyone hunts in my family. A firearm isn't any different than a fishing pole or hunting knife to us.

Crazy people shouldn't be allowed to have knives, fishing poles, arrows, crossbows or firearms. On that, we can agree.

The airport aspect has NOTHING to do with this crime.

Tell that to those five people who would be alive if Santiago hadn't been allowed to fly. And if the FBI had interviewed family members who are now saying that the killer “lost his mind” after coming back home from a one-year tour in Iraq he shouldn't have been.

Well it wouldn't be fair to law abiding insane people if we tried to stop them from getting guns.

But it's reported that he got into an argument with other passengers on the plane, so this does not look like a premeditated attack.

The TSA agent and other police did nothing, diving under their desks or running away, because, as usual, police just form a perimeter and let the killing continue until someone runs out of ammo or an unarmed, courageous civilian stops the shooter. . . The police show up later to fill out paperwork and get their photos taken in full battle/swat gear for the press. The police do not protect, you have to protect yourself.

What claptrap. Maybe you had a bad run in with a cop one day, maybe a cop locked up your dear uncle, or maybe a cop whizzed in your Cherrios, I don't know. But you are way off the mark here.

Cops are no less courageous that that hypothetical civilian you wrote of. And just because a cop puts on a uniform, it doesn't mean they are expected to throw their lives away to satisfy some Hollywood-hyped macho image of cops going in guns a'blazing.

Guns don't kill people, people kill people. However, guns are somehow unique because they are made specifically to kill something or hurt really bad. Cars can kill people but they are not made for that reason. Got to think about this issue seriously.

@superlib... as a 'liberal', I'm certain that your ilk would find it politically incorrect to keep someone from possessing a gun due to their mental orientation. You made the bed...sleep in it.

What a baffling statement. I don't think I've ever seen anyone supporting the mentally ill being allowed to possess guns.

But I suppose it makes you feel better to make something up then demonize liberals for your fantasy belief.

The founding fathers got some things right, but one thing they got HORRIBLY, TRAGICALLY wrong was the 2nd amendment.

Yet over two centuries later the 27 times amended Constitution retains the second amendment right for individuals to own arms.

Cars can kill people but they are not made for that reason. Got to think about this issue seriously.

Not all guns are intended to kill people and none are made for the purposes of committing a murder. No car is made for murdering people but they too are misused to do so. Both guns and cars are tools. People using those tools are the murderers. Put the blame for crimes on the criminals. Blaming the tool simply makes excuses for the crime.