by Brent Frazier
NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Whether they mean to or not, the nation's air travelers are still carrying on, or at least attempting to carry on, items forbidden by federal airport screeners.
"These are actual items," said Jon Allen, a Spokesman for TSA, the transportation security administration.
Allen was proudly showing off an entire table of said items: giant knives, a pepper spray dispenser, a 3-liter box of white wine, even fully-loaded handguns. Allen said these are items largely confiscated within the past five weeks.
Every item on display, legal on the street but illegal on-board a plane, was voluntarily surrendered by the passenger with the item; none of the items was seized forcibly by TSA.
He said passengers with such items always have alternatives to handing them over to the federal government.
"They can take them back to their vehicle," Allen said. "If someone dropped them off they can give them to that person; there's actually a business here at the airport that, for a fee, will collect the item and mail it."
Allen said the positive response from passers-by reinforced that the display did, in fact, need to be out in plain view. Always in the past, he said, the table of carry-on attempts had been posted in a private meeting room for media viewing only.
email: bfrazier@newschannel5.com
