FIORELLA ALVAREZ

Rush to break news at the speed of stupid.

I am willing to be that I am not the only one out here that gets to read a news article that it is so bad you can actually hear your neurons screaming in pain.
Exploding Bullets – Not Hairspray – Caused Bomb Scare at Miami Airport: TSA. This written “news” bit by the local NBC station is so cataclysmic in its poor journalism one wonders when the 2 authors quit their jobs selling aromatherapy vials from a cart at the Sawgrass MIll mall because they got hired at the NBC Miami.

First the title: Bullets do not explode. They are inert pieces of metal that will not go boom on their own or even aided by plastic explosive. I know the writers meant to say cartridges but that is not an excuse in the era of the internet and Google. It is their responsibility to get terms right. And on the subject, we read in the article that what caused the “explosion” were actually primers not bullets and not even hair spray as initially reported. How can you go from primers to bullets/cartridges is beyond me. I guess if we read the headline “Passenger sneaks pig in flight” we can assume the culprit was eating a hot dog at the waiting area. It is the same according to the TSA and NBC Miami.

I am a reloader. I don’t do thousands of rounds a day but enough to keep me going to matches. I prime my cases with a hand tool and I admit dropping my share of single, multiple primers and even boxes of 1,000. To this day I have not had one go off and neither anybody I know. The mechanics that make a primer go off are so precise, nobody with a bit of knowledge buys the “when the baggage handler sat the bag down on the ground, it caused one of the bullet primers to rupture and explode” explanation.Either there was something else happening inside that bag or the old Samsonite Gorilla or his offspring is now working as a baggage handler at MIA.

But this has to be the best and comes from my other favorite, The Miami Herald:

The Jamaica-bound traveler, a naturalized United States citizen whose name wasn’t released, was charged with traveling in interstate commerce without a license to carry ammunition, FBI spokesman Special Agent Michael Leverock said.

Huh? I have been searching all over the net and I cannot find it anywhere and so other of thousand shooters asking around in forums everywhere. Are we making laws as we go along here or what?

Seriously, I might be getting way grouchy in my old age, I can’t stand so much BS.

My brain hurts…it huuuurtttsssssss!

UPDATE: Apparently somebody actually told the FBI the proper USC statute (18 USC Section 922(e).) and the traveler, one Orville Andrew Braham will be charged accordingly.

18 USC Section 922(e) It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to deliver or
    cause to be delivered to any common or contract carrier for
    transportation or shipment in interstate or foreign commerce, to
    persons other than licensed importers, licensed manufacturers,
    licensed dealers, or licensed collectors, any package or other
    container in which there is any firearm or ammunition without
    written notice to the carrier that such firearm or ammunition is
    being transported or shipped; except that any passenger who owns or
    legally possesses a firearm or ammunition being transported aboard
    any common or contract carrier for movement with the passenger in
    interstate or foreign commerce may deliver said firearm or
    ammunition into the custody of the pilot, captain, conductor or
    operator of such common or contract carrier for the duration of the
    trip without violating any of the provisions of this chapter. No
    common or contract carrier shall require or cause any label, tag,
    or other written notice to be placed on the outside of any package,
    luggage, or other container that such package, luggage, or other
    container contains a firearm.