Several House members have proposed a more restrictive ban on plastic guns, after it was reported that the Transportation Security Administration failed to catch weapons and other items 95 percent of the time in a series of unannounced tests.
Many saw that failure as another sign that TSA needs to get a better grip on its mission. An official charged with assessing TSA’s performance told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that TSA is suffering from numerous management challenges, including sloppy screening practices and wasting public money on technology that isn’t helping to increase safety.
But Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., said TSA’s failure is evidence that it’s still too easy to move plastic guns through airport checkpoints.
“Handing criminals and terrorists a 95 percent chance of carrying dangerous weapons through airport security without being noticed is unacceptable,” Israel said. “If detectable weapons can make it through security checkpoints, how can we expect to catch wrongdoers carrying undetectable plastic firearms?”
Congress has already extended the Undetectable Firearms Act, which makes it illegal to produce, own, ship, buy or sell any firearm that can’t be detected by a metal detector. But Israel says that law has a loophole, since it doesn’t say explicitly whether the metal parts of a gun can be removed, or if they must be a permanent part of the weapon.
Israel’s bill would expand the law to require that key components of firearms are made of metal. For handguns, that would mean the cylinder and the receiver would have to be made of metal, and for rifles, the cylinder, receiver and barrel would have to be metal.
“It’s time to modernize our airport security so the American people can count on it again,” Israel said.
His bill is supported by the Air Line Pilots Association and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. It’s cosponsored by one Republican, New York’s Peter King, and five Democrats, including two from Connecticut who have pushed for tighter gun control rules since the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
