TSA Confiscate Belt Buckle…for National Security, of Course

The TSA confiscated a traveler’s belt buckle, because it was shaped like a gun. Their argument was that if this traveler pointed the belt buckle at a cop, the cop might mistake it for a real gun and have to “take action” against him. Believe me, it wouldn’t take much to get a cop to shoot you. You could point your finger at a cop, and he’d shoot you, claiming he thought you had a gun.

Traveler Sean Malone was late to a flight out of Los Angeles and didn’t have time to argue with the TSA supervisor about his belt buckle that agents had confiscated. So, Malone had no choice but to leave it with them.

A couple days earlier, the same thing had happened, except he had more time to argue with the supervisor, and so they ended up letting him board with his belt buckle. The Blaze recounted that experience:

…And by “again,” Malone was referring to a similar incident, which had occurred two days earlier as he was leaving Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In that instance, Malone said he protested long enough that he was able to talk to the supervisor of the terminal and they eventually allowed him to take it on the plane.

Malone said as he was going through security leaving Washington, D.C., a man told him there was something in there that was “kind of shaped like a gun.”

“Yeah, it’s a belt buckle,” Malone responded.

The worker then took it out of the bag and looked at it just before calling over another worker, who told him, “Listen, you can either go back out of security and put this in your check[ed] luggage, or we’ll confiscate it.”

But Malone didn’t check any luggage.

“You understand that this is a belt buckle, right?” he said he asked. “It is not a danger to the safety of anyone, nor is it against the law to carry.” Malone then asked them how they would justify confiscating it.

“What if you take this object out of your bag and point it – like a gun – at a police officer?” one of the workers reportedly asked. “He would have no choice to assume that it was a gun, and take action against you.”

When Malone asked the worker why he would point his belt buckle at a police officer, he said she had no answer.

Malone then pointed out that even if he was to do such a thing, it would only risk harm to himself and not anyone else onboard the plane. After refusing to “have a debate” about it,” the worker reminded him, “You have two options. That’s it,” she said.

That’s when Malone said he asked to speak with her supervisor. But after she took the belt buckle over to show to her supervisor, she came back to Malone, handed him his belt buckle and said, “Here you go. Have a good flight, sir.”

Eric Holder wasn’t kidding when he said they really needed to brainwash people about guns. Even the shape of a gun is enough to cause alarm so as to justify confiscation. It was a belt buckle. It was not capable of shooting rounds. Or anything for that matter. If they wanted to inspect it, because it showed up on their screen as something that looked like a gun, then fine. But once they inspected it and saw that it was nothing, there should have been no issue.