hot document: Primary sources exposed and explained.

Airborne Celebrity Gun Smugglers

hot document
entries
123456789
from: Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Thursday, April 19, 2007, at 3:14 PM ET

What do Harry Connick Jr., Paul Prudhomme, Tommy Lee, Ross Perot Jr., and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., have in common? They've all been caught in the act of carrying guns onto airplanes.

Security consultant Louis Mizell Jr., who last month shared with Slate readers his report on the terrorist applications of toothpaste, has more recently researched instances in which well-known American travelers were found to have guns in their carry-on luggage. Most of these celebrities simply forgot their carry-on was loaded, in much the same way that Phillip F. Thompson, a staff aide to Sen. Jim Webb, absent-mindedly carried the senator's pistol into the Russell Senate Office Building. (He was promptly arrested.)

Mizell identified 27 instances out of hundreds in which prominent Americans were caught carrying guns onto planes, including two judges, two transportation security executives, the author of the Boy Scouts of America handbook (Page 8), comedian Katt Williams (Page 9), and former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Steve Howe (Page 8). Mizell prepared the report (click here for the whole thing) in response to press inquiries following the voluntary surrender last month by Janet Tucker, a flight attendant who carried a gun on a United flight from Atlanta to Washington, D.C.

Judging from the cases in Mizell's report, Tucker probably won't do time for her offense. Perot, who was caught carrying a .380 caliber handgun onto* a flight from Seattle (Page 7), was quickly acquitted because, the jury agreed, "a prudent man" would not intentionally do anything quite so stupid. Except in the movie Con Air, no skyjacker has ever lifted a weapon from a gun-carrying "unwitting accomplice."

Got a Hot Document? Send it to . Please indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous.





Correction, April 20: An earlier version of this article inadvertently implied that Perot got his gun through security and brought it onto the plane. In fact, the gun was caught at an airport checkpoint, as was the case in every other incident mentioned here, save Tucker's. (Return to the corrected sentence.)

hot document
entries
123456789
from: Bonnie Goldstein

Posted Thursday, April 19, 2007, at 3:14 PM ET
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Bonnie Goldstein is a former special investigator to the U.S. Senate and investigative producer for ABC News.
Photograph of Harry Connick Jr on Slate's home page by Evan Agostini/Getty Images.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES
Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Assessing Sarah Palin
| Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, John Podesta and others weigh in.
Colbert King: She's No HillaryEditorial: Is She Ready for This?
PLUS » PostPartisan: Quick Takes from Opinions