A Washington state senator was arrested at the airport in Hong Kong and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm, his office said.
Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, was detained at Hong Kong International Airport on Friday night after he found a pistol in his carry-on bag and reported it to customs officials.
He was released on bail Sunday and faces a hearing Oct. 30.
What's ironic here is that this isn't a matter of incompetence, it's a matter of efficiency. There isn't much of a threat of hijacking airplanes, and there never has been. It's just that after 9/11 the spectacle of that even has caused the average person to overestimate the threat of terrorism in airports by several orders of magnitude. Therefore, while we're in no more danger than we were on 09/10/2001, people believe that there is a danger and if someone doesn't perform security, they won't fly. So, in order to appease these people who don't actually understand the situation but have the power to affect it, we all have to go through a little dance that's designed to look very much like security. Take your shoes off. Throw out your water bottle. Has anyone asked you to put anything in your bag for them? Put your shoes back on. Take your shoes back off. 95% of weapons in carry-on luggage make it through TSA screening and onto the plane. Put your shoes back on. Take your belt off.
To be fair, the number of incidents was much higher in the 60s and 70s. Usually in the high 60s low 70s oddly enough, per year. Not really relevant nowadays, but an interesting fact.