"you've angered us by telling the truth"

[tman]

I can accept that YouTube might not be the best first stop for airing security concerns (and nothing I've read suggests he was rebuffed by TSA, or other authorities), but on what grounds does he get a personal firearm confiscated?

It may be an issued firearm, and not personally owned. I'll have to check into that.

[bstrawse]

I can accept that YouTube might not be the best first stop for airing security concerns (and nothing I've read suggests he was rebuffed by TSA, or other authorities), but on what grounds does he get a personal firearm confiscated?

It may be an issued firearm, and not personally owned. I'll have to check into that.

Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) carry an Air Marshals Service issue weapon - which I believe is the H&K USP Compact .40 w/ the LEM trigger.

The Armed Security Officer program has a short list of weapons that are authorized, but they are personally / corporately purchased. There are details on the TSA's website.

The pilot in question was a FFDO.
b

[xd ED]

I can accept that YouTube might not be the best first stop for airing security concerns (and nothing I've read suggests he was rebuffed by TSA, or other authorities), but on what grounds does he get a personal firearm confiscated?

It may be an issued firearm, and not personally owned. I'll have to check into that.

I may have been wrong. I thought I read somewhere there were two guns surrendered: the issued firearm( which I agree is theirs to give or take back), and a personally owned weapon. As I re-read things, it was his carry permit he was also asked to surrender in addition to the TSA pistol:

"...At the same time as the federal marshals took the pilot's gun, a deputy sheriff asked him to surrender his state-issued permit to carry a concealed weapon.

A follow-up letter from the sheriff's department said the CCW permit would be reevaluated following the outcome of the federal investigation...."
http://www.news10.net/news/article.aspx ... &catid=188

While there is perhaps some bit of justification for that, given he is a CA resident, and the permit may have been somehow conditional to his TSA role, it still smacks of retribution, and doesn't make anyone (at least on the plane he's piloting) safer.