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CNN SATURDAY NIGHT
TSA Plans to Unload Confiscated Weapons
Aired October 11, 2003 - 22:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Fear of terrorism is why the Transportation Security Administration exists. The TSA screens airline passengers, and confiscates dangerous weapons. So what do they do with all that stuff? Well, like a lot of things Uncle Sam tries, the answer isn't easy or cheap. In fact, Kathleen Koch shows us it's downright controversial.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had some names that I had on my keychain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got caught with the nail clippers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Swiss Army knife in my bag. And they took it from me.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a frustrating reality of airport security rules. And the items forfeited to screeners are piling up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see a full range from decorative and commemorative knives, bread knives, to small cap guns.
KOCH: More than eight million seized since February 2002. 50,000 box cutters, more than 1500 firearms. So the federal government has hired a private company to get rid of all the banned items seized at the nation's 429 airports.
BRIAN TURMAIL, SPOKESMAN, TRANSPORTATION SEC. ADMIN.: Dispose of them in a way that will not disrupt the environment, that will not allow certain dangerous items to be recirculated and used inappropriately. That's exactly why we want to have a single, consistent contract that saves taxpayers money.
KOCH: But some lawmakers believe that what could become a five year, $17 million contract, does anything but.
SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: $17 million sounds like an astounding sum of money for a task that you would think could be done in a much more cost effective way through auctions or simply allowing local communities to be involved in the disposal.
KOCH: Until now, each airport has found its own way to dispose of items, selling some to scrap metal companies, recycling others, like scissors and pocket knives. Some have their own ideas about what should happen to the items. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give them away to somebody that's needy or somebody that could use it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they ought to put it in an envelope. And you can pick it up on the other end.
JOHN BERTHOUD, NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNION: Put them in a box and, you know, let people have a couple weeks to reclaim them. I just -- I don't think that that kind of consumer friendly attitude is incompatible. And it's going to detract in any way from the TSA's mission of airport security.
KOCH (on camera): For now, the government insists it's not going to start a lost and found for travelers. It instead will work to keep people from bringing potentially dangerous items to the airport in the first place.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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