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Comment by hobin | Hacker News Reader

I think most of us agree that the TSA is very ineffective at what it tries to achieve. That being said, saying they've had zero success is a little unfair, because this would be very hard to measure. After all, in the case of 'success', nothing happens - had they not been successful, something might have happened. We can't even compare the number of things that happened before and after a change was made by the TSA, because that presumes that there are always an equal number of people trying to make things happen.

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So if they're right, they're right, and if they're wrong they're right because they could've been right?

Oh come on, if they stopped an actual weapon they would certainly do a full press release about it. In all the years with all the money spent, there is NOTHING?

What you are saying is they are awesome at stopping invisible pink elephants, they just cannot show them to us because they are invisible.

Every place in the USA has city, county, state and federal police with incredible laws that let they do almost anything they want, yet there is still crime. Somehow the TSA magically has no crime to show for their presence.

> if they stopped an actual weapon they would certainly do a full press release about it.

They stop about 20 to 30 handguns each week. I don't know how many guns they don't stop.

Some of those are loaded. TSA doesn't care about handguns in checked in baggage, they even advise people how to travel with guns. They do care about handguns in carry on bags.

Hmm, where are the auctions for all these weapons?

I mean since they are seizing thousands of nailclippers each month across the country and then auctioning them, they must be seizing the handguns too.

Where the TSA sells seized goods by state: http://www.eyeflare.com/article/where-buy-goods-confiscated-...

This articles says they don't sell the handguns (perhaps that varies by state?): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46934445/ns/local_news-lancaster...

WHo says they keep the guns? I guess (but I don't know) that the weapons go to law enforcement for further action; maybe a "citation"[1] or maybe arrest and prosecution.

(http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1...)

looking at the "Week in Review" posts you see the number of guns, handily broken down into loaded and unloaded. The charts list how many guns had a round chambered.

(http://blog.tsa.gov/search/label/guns)

I have no idea how many people the TSA screen each week; nor how many guns make it through screening; nor whether any of the people trying to take guns on board a plane have any intent to harm people.

At one point, it was a pretty good idea to travel with a checked in gun to keep photographic equipment safe. You buy a starter pistol which is considered a gun by their rules. Put it in your luggage with your expensive equipment. Since losing a bag with a gun is a no-no and those bags were locked - no "lost" equipment.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/expensive_came...

if they stopped an actual weapon they would certainly do a full press release about it

It's so common they don't even bother doing a press release anymore. Sometimes they write about interesting finds on their blog:

"Over 1,200 firearms were discovered at TSA checkpoints across the nation in 2011. Many guns are found loaded with rounds in the chamber. Most passengers simply state they forgot they had a gun in their bag."

"Small chunks of C4 explosives were found in passenger’s checked luggage in Yuma (YUM). Believe it or not, he was brining it home to show his family."

http://blog.tsa.gov/2012/01/tsa-top-10-good-catches-of-2011....

Not convinced this really makes travel safer, but they do find a lot of stuff...

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