with the with that passenger. why that passenger would leave and where they ve gone, that s going to become a central area of focus as they try to get the airport put back together so that it can function. let me ask you, john, has there been a worry that there would be lapses in security at airports like atlanta hartsfield, especially when we are in the midst of this pandemic, we ve heard of obviously mandates going through when it comes to vaccines, folks not wanting to necessarily get vaccinated, leaving their jobs subsequently. we ve seen it across many industries. i know the tsa is also being required to receive those vaccinations. their deadline, i believe, is next week. is there a worry that there will be a lapse in security at airports like atlanta hartsfield ahead of holiday travel, especially when you see something like this go down? there is always an ongoing effort to keep security at the highest levels.
we re learning from authorities there as this thing develops in the search for the person who discharged the firearm? they are poring over the security video. they are as jim said earlier, they will be talking to the tsos and one point to make is they will absolutely be able to figure out what this passenger is, because they would have had to scan their ticket and show their i.d. to get to the point where their bag was being searched. one thing to clarify, yasmin. the tsa does have a vaccine mandate of monday or deadline vaccine deadline of monday. but that will not cause any type of shortage of transportation security officers over the holiday season. even if the tsos are unvaccinated, they can still work. they will be wearing a mask. there is a government mask mandate in effect for transportation at airports until the middle of january. and while this process will take a long time to play out, and tsa
gun, none of that is under the purview of the tsa? that is correct. it s dependent on the laws of the given state. georgia has a open and a concealed carry law. so in that case, if the person is legal to carry a gun and has a license to carry that gun, they can be told to take it away. in a state like new york, that person would be arrested because that is not legal. i m just getting a text from a tsa official who tells me that 80% of the guns that they find at checkpoints are loaded. wow. wow. that s huge. i think a lot of people would be shocked to hear that number. these folks that don t necessarily carry guns would be shocked that 80% of the guns are loaded. in a situation in the situation that, when they do find a gun, they report it to the airport police immediately, and then it s up to them to deal with it. as you said, the tsa s job is to
seriously, as it should be. for someone to bring a firearm to the airport, unfortunately, it does happen. but for the actions of reaching for that gun, particularly in resulting with a discharge, and then disappearing, that elevates it to a new level, and this is going to take some time to sort through. it does indicate that tsa had located the gun. they knew that it was there and were in the process of confiscating it, so the tsa portion of the security system worked. but the actions from that point on, i think, will be studied and investigated in great depth but this is going to take a while to sort out. what does it take for an airport to go on lockdown, john, and how can airport officials, authorities, be so certain so
or maybe they wanted to flee. sometimes people have guns illegally. they don t know you re going to discover it, and they can t otherwise legally possess a gun, like a convicted felon, for example. and if you you know, as a cop and an agent my whole life, it s often happens when you discover contraband, guns, narcotics, victims, and the people know you just discovered it, that s the time they want to flee or fight because they know you know. and so, sometimes i m not saying that s what happened here. it could be just a citizen that had an accidental discharge. airport police said, everybody clear out and he cleared out too. that might not have been the best decision for him or he might have should have stayed there, but he might have got scared, he might have cleared out with the other passengers. isn t it the tsa s responsibility isn t it the security professionals responsibility, the folks that are searching that bag, isn t that isn t this what they re trained for, to make