TSA Powder Residue Detector... NOT!

Just got an email from a friend that spent a day shooting with me and was covered with powder residue:

So, with regard to the response of an airport hand swipe sniffer thing to
having spent a couple of hours firing hand guns, the answer is: it did
not register. I warned the two security people that I had been at a gun
range and asked if it would matter, and they actually didn't know the
answer and were as curious as I was at what would happen. I don't know
if they were as surprised as I was at the result, but the machine didn't
care. I don't know what that means, but it's curious. I wonder if it's
just an empty plastic box with lights and buttons that doesn't actually
do anything, and is just there to scare/re-assure people.

 

Well, that reminded me of an amusing TSA experience I had. Same airport, LAX. A traveler left a cart piled high with luggage in an out of bounds area and went and sat down about 60 feet away. The TSA people noticed it and called the airport police (at LAX these are LAPD cops who are serving suspension or on medical leave). The airport policeman examined the pile of luggage and then went around asking people whether they owned it, INCLUDING THE OWNER (everybody else knew who the owner was, by the way - and she looked a helluva lot more dangerous to piss off than the airport cop), and everybody just shook their head NO. After standing around for 20 minutes, he left, and the luggage stayed right where it was for the next two hours.

 

Say, you never worked the desk in Rampart Division, did you? I think I've heard that said only slightly differently before:

"I'm off duty in 3 minutes. If you insist that I write a report, I'm going to make sure the accident was YOUR fault."