STORM2K

** Before I post this article, wasn't there a warning shortly after 9-11 that there was intelligence that pointed to putting something like a gun or such in teddy bears?? **

Here is the article...

Screeners at a passenger checkpoint at the Orlando International Airport last Friday found a loaded handgun hidden inside a stuffed teddy bear belonging to a 10-year-old boy, the Transportation Security Administration has told CNN.

The boy was part of a family of five that had been on vacation in Orlando and was returning home to Ohio, the TSA said.

"The family reported it had been given to the child at a hotel in Orlando two days earlier," TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said.

The .22-caliber Derringer, according to another TSA official, was "artfully hidden" inside the bear.

Screeners became suspicious after the teddy bear was x-rayed, and a small hole was found on the bottom of the stuffed toy, the official said.

Johnson said the FBI is examining who gave the child the bear and why.

The family was questioned and sent on their way, he said.

The TSA said the gun had been reported stolen in 1996 in Barstow, California, after a residential burglary.

That story is scary beyond belief....I wonder if the derringer was loaded? What kind of kook would give a kid a toy with a gun inside?

Are we to the point in America that it's dangerous to allow our children to accept teddy bears or dolls as gifts?...or legally risky for us to offer a child not related to us a gift?

I've given my neighbors 23 month old little boy Ethan gifts (easter basket, toy dump truck, bucket and pail for his sandbox, etc)...Granny gives him a banana or apple nearly every time she sees him and his mom outside...and usually gives his mom Connie a dollar (to spend on him - a growing boy needs ice cream money

We did the same thing for Leanne and Haley (two neighbor's granddaughters) when they were little (both are now in college)....and never thought a thing about it...neither did their moms or grandmothers.

When Becky and I were kids, we were given gifts...heck, a few years ago, one of dad's co-workers gave Beth a 13" color tv set...she was 6 or 7, and Tom bought her a tv set. He was a retired policeman working security with dad, said Beth reminded him of his daughter when she was little...so he bought her a tv...just to be nice.

That is a very sad and scary story Garrett...in more ways than one.

This is a new "low"; using a child as an unsuspecting "mule" to deliver a stolen firearm into an airplane! I hope they screen the passenger list on that flight and "get" the intended recipient..SOON.