What happened to 17-year-old Vanessa Gibbs gives new meaning to fashionably late.  Via Radley Balko :

Gibbs said she had no problem going through security at Jacksonville International Airport, but rather, when she headed home from Virginia.

“It’s my style, it’s camouflage, it has an old western gun on it,” Gibbs said.

Frankly, it’s not quite my style, but then again, there are very few 17-year-olds who seek my fashion advice.



Once again, in either a mindless excess of caution, or a sly fashion commentary, our dedicated and vigilant TSA found a reason to exist.

Gibbs said she was headed back home to Jacksonville from a holiday trip when an agent flagged her purse as a security risk.

“She was like, ‘This is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun,'” Gibbs said. “I’m like, ‘But it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?'”

After agents figured out the gun was a fake, Gibbs said, TSA told her to check the bag or turn it over.

One can’t help but wonder how many agents were needed to figure out that the “gun was a fake.”  What gave it away? How could they be sure?  So many crucial questions.

The problem, according to the TSA, is that they believed it to be a “replica gun,”  This is the Nancy Grace vision of criminality, “if it walks like a duck,” etc.  Except the replica gun prohibition makes complete sense when one limits it to its definition, an object that in all respects appears to be the real thing, except it doesn’t operate.  While it might be argued that this is a replica purse, it most assuredly isn’t a replica gun, an object that could reasonably be mistaken for a gun, capable of firing projectiles.

Can we blame the TSA for taking a closer look at Gibbs’ bag?  Probably not, as it’s not a great stretch to imagine that some inventive terrorist might fashion a weapon that would appear to be a decoration on a women’s handbag that could be removed and, in fact, function.  With a bit of ingenuity, almost any object could be created that looked benign but was capable of firing a projectile. 

Of course, a thoughtful terrorist would be more likely to make the decoration appear to be something that would draw less attention, like a beautiful mermaid or a stately swan, rather than a gun.  You know, something that might attract the admiration of TSA agents everywhere for its tastefulness, but not its deadliness, in a WalMart sort of way.

The TSA agents should have been fully capable of determining that the gun decoration on the side of Gibbs’ purse was neither capable of confusing anyone with a real weapon nor firing a projectile (vomit notwithstanding) in a matter of seconds.  The absence of a hole in the barrel, a working trigger, or absolutely anything beneath its garish exterior, was a dead giveaway. 

While the agents pondered this deeply disturbing purse, Gibbs missed her plan to Jacksonville, causing her waiting mother enormous concern. 

By the time security wrapped up the inspection, the pregnant teen missed her flight, and Southwest Airlines sent her to Orlando instead, worrying her mother, who was already waiting for her to arrive at JIA.

“Oh, it’s terrifying. I was so upset,” said Tami Gibbs, the teen’s mom. “I was on the phone all the way to Orlando trying to figure out what was going on with her. It was terrifying. I don’t ever want to go through it again.”

So what if a mother finds herself standing alone as the passengers deplane and your pregnant child isn’t among them?  So what if nobody has the slightest clue why your daughter doesn’t rush to the waiting bosom of her mother in a fashion forward sort of way?  At least the rest of the passengers can rest assured that they weren’t subjected to a terrorist threat. Or a gun and camo purse.

There is a moral to this post, aside from the TSA’s perpetually mining new depths of absurdity.

A TSA official at JIA said it’s not that uncommon for passengers to wear something that could be considered a gun replica, but the official encourages everyone to check the prohibited items list, which can be found online or at the airport before going through security.

If the opportunity arises to purchase a haute couture bag with a decoration in the shape of, oh, a Molotov cocktail, get to the airport early.  This is the price of fashion.