If anyone was wondering about this politician’s party, he’s a Republican.
(No one was actually wondering. We all knew immediately.)
Yeah, I saw Washington and was like, it’s definitely a Republican.
I’m a bit surprised Washington has a Republican senator. But I guess there’s plenty of rural areas.
Almost the entire eastern part of the state (minus Whitman county and a few others) is Red. It’s only west of the mountains that it’s primarily blue. The population ratio is massively in favor of west of the mountains though
There’s a little blue dot in the center of Spokane, but it’s often overpowered by Coeur d’Alene.
…Which is in
idahoPotatoland.
Thank fuck. If I had a bunch of those idiots actually in charge in the state, I’d move
Happens in California too. Even in the cities. I’m sorry to crush every rural liberals dream but the religions conservative right are everywhere.
2/3 of Washington State is very rural. Like, drive 65 miles through wheat fields without seeing a house rural. They also have mountains.
Of course. The primary function of any senate in the US is to give power to land rather than to people.
I-5 corridor is very blue, then you’ve got deer hunting backwoods rednecks on the peninsula to the west and rural farmers to the east on the other side of the mountains
Even around the interstate you’ve got plenty of people flying flags on their houses and their trucks. It’s funny, the fascists where I live have abandoned their Trump 2024 flags for No step on snek. I guess they figure he doesn’t trigger the libs as much with one foot in a jail cell. Or maybe against all odds they grew a sense of shame.
What is mo step on snek?
The Gadsden flag, notable for the text “Don’t tread on me,” on a yellow flag with a coiled snake in the center. It’s popular with cishet white male alt-righters and libertarians who feel persecuted for whatever reason. People use the phrase “No step on snek” with a cartoonish snake illustration to mock the idea that the most privileged groups today would ever compare themselves to the people of the American revolution who fought and died under this banner.
Like many blue states, the red parts of Washington are probably more racist and fascist than even the deepest red states. Eastern Washington still has a massive presence of out-and-proud white supremecists, just like Northern California and Eastern Oregon.
State government…
I wouldn’t necessarily make that assumption, I’m a gun toting Democrat myself
Yes, but are you dumb enough to take your gun with you when traveling internationally?
They probably just know there are consequences for their actions. Unlike the politician.
Did anyone actually read the article?
Did you?
“Washington state senator Jeff Wilson was arrested on Saturday at Hong Kong International Airport and charged with possession of a firearm without a license, the charge sheet states, an offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a fine of more than $12,000.”
Whoopsies!
The bit where he says he is the one that brought it to the attention of customs.
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That doesn’t make him any less stupid given that he flew to China with an illegal gun in the first place.
no but that’s not really the point I was making
Sure, but it is the point the person you were replying to was making.
The stupidity was the giveaway, not the gun.
As others have pointed out, it’s not the gun ownership. It’s the stupid, entitled, law-breaking gun ownership. As you’re a gun-toting Democrat, I fully expect you to be smart enough not to be packing heat on an international flight.
Do you know many gun toting democrats that are bad gun owners?
Yeah, but you probably aren’t going to try to bring a gun to China.
As am I. Been a gun toting democrat since I shipped off to Iraq to look for yellowcake.
Good thing you guys never found any. With that name the Marines would definitely try to eat it.
“he did not realize he had packed his pistol in his briefcase while he and his wife were traveling…“It was an honest mistake.””
He thought he could get away with it or he did make an honest mistake with a deadly weapon in an international incident. Either way, he should be held accountable for his actions in both situations.
I am cognizant enough that I search my pockets and any bags taken on the plane for fluids over 100ml so, yes, a gun seems like something you’d want to be conscious of.
Either way, he should be held accountable for his actions in both situations.
He might, since he was caught outside America, where claiming “I lost track of where my gun was” is an insane defense that would get your gun license revoked forever.
Once back in the US though, we worst he’ll face is some disappointed tutting in his direction. The pro-gun crowd works very hard to ensure the “responsible” part of “responsible gun owner” stays entirely optional.
How can you have any accountability when accidents happen?
Wilson said in the statement that when the plane landed in Hong Kong, he “immediately went to customs officials and called their attention to the issue.”
If his statement is to be trusted, he did not try to get away with it
Apart from that, the TSA did obviously not notice that he was carrying. Which means they either don’t do their job, or they are worthless as such.
Yes, it’s been known for a while how useless they are. The FBI had undercover agents smuggle explosives through TSA checkpoints and they succeeded most of the time.
I remember a story from a person that was flying as part of a small group of military training instructors, we can rest assured that the TSA stops at least 2 out of every 3 (inert) claymore mines from entering the airplane
Putting aside for a second how the US should be dealing with the very real threat of gun violence in this country, I’m always surprised by the misunderstanding of the gravity that carrying a pistol in public has.
Its not just about keeping the safety on and making sure it doesn’t go off in your pants. When you bring a gun with you, you’re introducing a firearm to a situation where in many case there isnt one. That puts you and everyone else around you at significant risk of being shot now, where again, those odds used to be zero. Not only that, you’re basically steering the bus now on who gets shot if violence should break out, and not everyone is trained to handle an actual confrontation with the appropriate skills.
That’s what’s so mind boggling. At the end of the day, carrying a weapon just makes you and everyone around you more likely to be shot, and people feel the need to do that as a state senator in Washington? It sounds pointless. I’ll also add that the process of getting a concealed permit is mostly saying you won’t commit a crime, and getting fingerprinted, that’s generally it.
People who carry weapons around are generally afraid of something, expand that out to an entire nation and you have the USA.
Anyone who needs weapons in order to feel safe in their own country/own home live in a shithole.
…or is a massive coward. Possibly both.
Well, yes. Hence the red hats.
100% this.
Yeah they always say they need protection. I have never needed to protect myself with a gun and I have lived in some pretty rough areas over the years. What kind of stuff are they doing to other people that makes them think everyone is out to get them?
I was talking guns with an old guy at my last job, he said that everywhere in his house you are never more than 5 feet from a gun, he’s got so many loaded and stashed around his house, just I’m case. I thought that was one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard. Dude really thought someone was going to clockwork orange them every night and he had to be ready for a gunfight at any second. Yeah it’s life in the country and it might be an hour to a hospital and you gotta fend for yourself, but to assume that you’re going to come under violent assault at any moment and have to be ready to shoot it out with anyone has to be extremely draining. It definitely explained his attitude towards others though, always thought the worst of things he didn’t understand.
“clockwork orange them” bruh… >.<
“It was an honest mistake. And I expect the situation to be resolved shortly,” Wilson said in the statement.
Wilson said in the statement that when the plane landed in Hong Kong, he “immediately went to customs officials and called their attention to the issue.”
I hope he doesn’t assume his status as an American politician will solve the matter. According to the article he volunteered the information. But according to the linked article at RTHK the weapon was found by a customs agent.
TSA is a complete waste of tax dollars
Not a complete waste. But there’s a lack of management if a guy can get on a plane with a gun. I’m guessing he skipped the xray because he’s some fancy pants senator.
yeah.
TSA is nothing but security theater, and… if my memory serves correct, isnt the company that makes body scanners like…linked to several republicans, who pushed for them heavily after 9/11? When before no airport saw the need for them?
Yeah, China, famous for their understanding of high-profile American “mistakes.”
🙄
China either takes the PR win of gun obsessed Americans to extwitter world wide, or they keep him for a trade later on.
Not a diplomat, but it sounds like a coin flip.
14 year possible jail sentence.
Since it was unintentional and out of obscene levels of stupidity, I think he needs some time in a Chinese jail to think about his actions.
I would say about 14 years would do it. It’s for his own good.
It would really show Americans how big on law and order they are.
Guy should have wiped the weapon clean and dumped it into the garbage bin on the plane. I get that he’s aiming for leniency, but he’s in CHINA. They will absolutely use this against the Biden administration.
Who travels to a foreign country without knowing what is in their possession? Answer: Stupid people who should not own a gun.
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Holy shit? Really? This is the most brain dead comment I’ve seen.
Last time I checked hong Kong isn’t America and other countries have their own laws that you have to abide by, because you know, it’s their country. Your second amendment right in another country is as useful as unicorn farts.
Fuck this guy for being a stupid muppet.
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I’m not mad at him. I don’t know him. But, I do know he’s stupid.
Its perfectly valid to call someone stupid if they try to smuggle guns through airport security.
LOL why did he bother leaving the USA?? BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD BRO GUNS GUNS GUNS
You pretty much can’t take a gun anywhere outside the US. Don’t do it unless you want to stay there in their jail cells.
It’s a travel hack for free room and board.
You should go back to Reddit. You’re trash
Good job being stupid.
Imagine being dumb enough to write something like this.
Wilson said he “discovered the weapon mid-flight between San Francisco and Hong Kong.”
The Portland TSA crew is about to get a serious reprimand.
I don’t know if this is still the case, but I read a few years back that the TSA had a zero or near zero success rate in catching items deliberately put through their screening by their own auditors. I’d doubt they’re too worried about it. Their job is not to stop terrorists, it’s to hassle and intimidate innocent travelers to appear as if they’re actually doing something in as flagrant and visible a manner as possible. That’s why it’s called security theater; it’s not real, it’s just play acting.
All he had to do was to approach the crew and tell them he has a gun, asking them if they know what to do next… WCGW
That might have resulted in an in air incident. I would definitely wait till the plane landed.
Coming from someone who carries daily, I get that sometimes you forget it’s there and carry into a post office or doctors office. What I don’t get is how you forget when going to the airport. Internationally.
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Lol I agree, but its hard to explain to people who aren’t around guns that you can forget there’s a loaded deadly weapon on your belt. It’s very uncomfy and seemingly dangerous at first but after a few months or years it’s like a wallet but you typically use it 0 times a day. You don’t really realize it’s there, more than once I started walking to something that doesn’t allow guns and had to go back to my car to lock it up.
It happens.
But airports, especially intl terminals is pretty unexcusable.
Seems similar to looking for your glasses while wearing them or looking for your phone while talking on it. Sometimes the ol brain just shits the bed.
The firearm is just a tool, it becomes part of your daily routine. You pick it up and holster it like you put your wallet in your pocket and your watch on your wrist.
I check to make sure it’s loaded, but other than that there’s nothing special or exciting about tucking the holster in my belt. No “OMG A GUN” feeling, no excitement, my heart rate doesn’t jump. It’s just normal to be armed and you sort of forget about the heavy lump of metal and plastic secured to your belt.
That being said, I’ve never forgotten about it enough to pack into a prohibited place like a police station or a bar, and CERTAINLY NOT A FUCKING AIRPORT.
Also, we shouldn’t be giving TSA a pass here, assuming the congress critter actually went through security like us normal folks.
What other tools do you carry around with a sole purpose of killing something?
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I keep a knife on me. Its just a piece of metal, not some grand thing. Its not a poket knife eithet its a proper Ka-bar, I have it on my belt and will just forget avout it.
So the only purpose you have that knife is to murder someone?
Less murder more self defense, I have to drive through an area with lots of unstable meth heads and if one of them tries to stab me im returning the favor.
Why do you carry tools around with you all day? Do you also carry a hammer, reciprocating saw, spirit level or tape measure?
Glances around at all the people I know who carry pocket knives and multi tools.
Then again I wouldn’t call a gun a tool when it’s purpose is to maim and kill. Like sure technically it is correct but most people carry tools for utility reasons not that.
I can cut an apple with a pocket knife at least.
Well, a gun can turn the apple into apple-sauce.
Right? I’m actually sympathetic towards the “gun is a tool” argument. I grew up on a farm and have been hunting, I can relate.
And those people who carry pocket knives and multi tools (and as a technician, I’m one of them) are presumably often encountering situations where those tools are useful. What are the situations where a gun is useful? What is the kind of job that tool is designed for?
I’m convinced that it’s at least a little bit about the “OMG A GUN feeling”. I don’t see people walking around the street with a ball peen hammer holstered to their belt.
I grew up surrounded by farms ain’t no one carrying around a pistol at their hip to shoot gophers. We got a rifle and/or a shotty either held in the hand or in the tractor or truck.
That said I’m not in the US.
I grew up on a farm too and I can say that I didn’t know of any farmer who carried a gun with them. I spent a lot of time at different farms. Guns all stayed back at the house.
I gave other examples of “tools” like a watch or a wallet. Tools are just a means of getting things done, and aren’t in of themselves good or evil. Some tools are more dangerous than others, just like some jobs are more dangerous than others.
Trained and responsible adults do dangerous jobs, often with dangerous tools, in public, all the time. Similarly millions of law abiding Americans legally carry pistols every day, and you’d be surprised how little crime they commit with their tools compared to the overall public.
But that’s probably not what this crowd wants to hear, and that’s ok. I’m just chiming in to lend a perspective that might not be the status quo in places like this.
This excuse always makes me laugh, “it’s just a tool, like a hammer”. Well, a hammer could hit someone in the head, but it’s designed to hit nails. A gun does… What? Shoots people or animals. You’re an idiot.
Sure, but it doesn’t do that without someone pulling the trigger.
What you’ve done is assume either the tool has agency of its own, or that humans can only use this tool for negative purposes.
What I said was that those things are patently untrue, and provided examples of how >6 million pistols are legally carried by civilians in the US every day, and how those civilians are far less likely than regular public to commit gun crimes.
This is kind of a tautology because the legal carry folks are both:
- legally allowed to acquire a firearm (ruling out prohibited persons like people with prior criminal histories) and in many cases they’ve
- gone through even more extensive background checks and rigorous training
But I also acknowledge that some folks don’t think those facts are significant, I’m just sorry this resorted to name calling.
You’re arguing in bad faith. A concealed weapon has exactly one purpose: defense by the use of deadly force, or brandishing.
If you forget about carrying your gun, than you are not handling it with the required responsibility.
Does the average person carry a wallet with their cash, credit cards, and ID? It’s pretty important but 99% of the time you don’t think about it. Or keys to their house?
If a gun is on you almost all the time, you don’t really notice it until it’s NOT there, then it’s time for concern.
It’s an important item to keep track of but like a wallet it’s “not there” until you either need it or it’s not there when checking for it.
The question remains: why would you need a gun at all time?
A wallet isn’t going to accidentally fire a hole in your foot. A phone isn’t going to murder someone by force.
Is it really the only way you can feel safe in your own country? Because that only happens in shitholes.
It’s because people who carry are cowardly cunts regardless of what country they’re in. Though its mostly the US types we hear about doing this shit…
Gun owners love making analogies to benign things that aren’t guns. If you get so used to your gun that you forget it’s even there, you’re not being a responsible gun owner. Period.
Lol should I chant to myself when walking my dog? “I have a gun, I have a gun, I have a gun”
In most cases it IS a benign object. Other than the occasional shooting range it doesn’t leave the holster, I’ve never had to draw it, I’ve never shot it outside of the range. I put it on without thinking about it, it stays on my waist where nobody can see it, I don’t feel it there unless I think about it.
Agree to disagree I guess, if you wear something every day and forget it’s there that makes you human not an irresponsible person. Unless you forget about it and enter say… and airport terminal, then you’re a dumbass.
A gun is not a benign object you fucking moron
Well he also isn’t allowed to carry his gun to his job as a senator sooooo…
But mah Second Amendment rights!
Americans who believe their laws are applicable to the rest of the world are the worst.
Sounds like you’re from one of those countries that doesn’t have enough freedom deployed to it. Prepare for freedom to be deployed in 3 . . . 2 . . .
Most responsible gun owner
Also part of the US state government.
fucking great
Excited to hear how American security retaliates against a Chinese official for carrying a thing Americans consider dangerous.
So, probably a book.
I mean, by recent censorship it’d be a book with gay people in it, and China would agree with the arrest.
Rather than just pile on with “idiot LOL” comments I will offer this:
Segregate your airline travel bag from your “other stuff” bag. You need a dedicated backpack or case that you only use for air travel and never anything else.
If you multipurpose your rangebag or whatever, of course you could have potential issues even if you remove the weapons before travel (dogs could alert on the powder residue, etc.)
Likewise if you are a druggie or something you don’t want to accidentally end up in Singapore or Russia with your weedbag you forgot was in your backpack.
Even something as inoccuous as having a backpack you used for camping could backfire on you if you leave your folding knife or lighter in there.
“Druggie” “Weedbag”
Harsh toke brother
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Lol. Americans…
“Ma freedom applies here, right?”
I’m glad they took his gun but they should also take away his briefcase. That vacation is a time for him and his wife to spend together, not for reviewing important briefs. Those can and should wait until he goes back to the office to do whatever 1960’s ass job he has that involves a briefcase and a gun.
Gun violence is very rare in Hong Kong, unlike in the United States where firearms are now the No. 1 killer of children and teens.
O-okay, weird thing to randomly bring up (also not actually true if I remember right)
No, that’s actually true. As of this year, guns are the #1 killer of children and teens in the United States.
I’m only skeptical because the last time I heard this claim, when I looked into the study it turned out to only be true if you massaged the data to the point of the headline basically being a lie (it was like, combine all gun homicide, suicide, and accidental deaths but split vehicle accidents and pedestrian collisions into separate categories because vehicle deaths was still larger), but that could have been pre-covid data.
Looking into this one it seems like covid (these are 2021 numbers) might have lowered vehicle deaths and raised gun homicide/suicide enough for it to actually be the leading cause without fudging any numbers, although I’m struggling to find the exact methodology used (the CDC’s website isn’t exactly the most navigable on a phone)
The study also defines children as 1-19 year olds. 0-1 isn’t considered (which is a big number of deaths that aren’t guns) and 18-19 shouldn’t be considered because they aren’t legally kids. However, if you leave 18-19 out then you don’t get the benefit of skewing the data with more gang violence.
I sorta get not including 0-1 since the top two spots become dominated by perinatal complications and congenital defects
Now that I’m on my computer and have messed around with their data display tool a bit, lemme see if I can break it down a bit further, all data will be from the latest year in the set, 2021, for simplicity:
Top 3 Death Cause 1-19: Firearm (4,733), Cars (4,048), Poisoning (2,079)
Top 3 Death Cause 1-17: Firearm (2,571), Cars (2,348), “All Other Diseases” (1,495)
Almost half of firearm and car accident deaths are happening to 18 and 19 year olds in this data it seems, poisoning is much further down now with only 800 or so, perhaps this category includes alcohol and drug related overdose deaths which must effect 18 and 19 year olds at a higher rate?
Top 3 Death Cause 1-19 (Minus “Black or African American”): Cars (3,167), Firearm (2,374), Poisoning (1,758)
Top 3 Death Cause 1-17 (Minus “Black or African American”): Cars (1,789), Firearm (1,357), Cancer (1,181)
As the article linked as the source of data states, black children (and young adults) have a far higher chance of dying a firearm related death (roughly 8 to 9 times higher per 100,000 than other races), I feel like a lot more focus should be put there (hopefully without any racist undertones)
A 100% reasonable perspective.
Legally, you have to register that that car and renew annually. To drive that car in the road, you’d have to have a license that you acquired paying a competency test and possibly perform a driving test. You’d also have to have insurance while driving it in public.
Not a weird thing to bring up at all. HK regulators are not likely to view this as the semi-serious faux pas that Americans, particularly his constituents, may believe it to be. Americans have a bizarre acceptance of firearms (compared to the rest of the developed world) and our consistent refusal to regulate them despite numerous atrocities is a big factor of how this incident could even have happened in the first place.
This article has nothing to do with gun violence or children though, the random facts just come a bit out of left field
Something something snowflakes and having much sex with their feelings.
