What a joke!

[thetexan]

Went to the State Fair of the Great, Free and Sovereign Republic of the Lone Star State of Texas yesterday! Beautiful weather, perfect temperature, new Big Tex...great day and great time!

Carried Mr. T with me (Taurus PT-140) and was prepared for a scan, search, explanation, display of credentials and entry. (Not only can you carry at the fair invites all licensed chl's to do so on their web site.)

As I stood in line I watched person after person wanded by the guard and let in including cursory searches of bags. As I moved to my turn I got wanded and......NOTHING! It didn't go off, didn't make a sound, nothing, AND I WAS THE ONE WITH A GUN! That actually made me upset. I took two steps forward then said to myself....NO. I backed up and told the guy to do it again. He did and the wand made a little reaction as it came near my right side. That got his attention! I immediately flashed my card and he nodded and let me through.

What kind of a joke is the security at the fair!!!??? How many illegal guns got through the gate due to either inattention or lack of response by a poorly calibrated wand? Probably untrained, poorly paid gate worker also.

There is nothing that irritates me more than an ineffective, inefficient security check. If you are going to go to the trouble to slow us down, and check, then make it count.

I'm glad I took the sidearm now that I realize that everyone in that place was exposed and, in the last analysis, unprotected by the very system that was intended to do just that.

tex

[C-dub]

It's not called security theater for nothing.

[Purplehood]

Why worry? You had your protection.

[chasfm11]

I had the opposite happen. I was unexpectedly faced with a wanding situation in Lewisville recently. I objected and ended up talking to two local LEOs who advised me to go ahead and be wanded. The wand alerted on both my spare mag and my gun but the officer waved me through. That security team was rejecting people with pocket knives.

I guess it comes down to how diligent the person with the wand is or, perhaps, how sensitive it is. It sounds like the State Fair team is more interested in appearances than in substance. If you listen to the State Fair officials, they are more than willing to tell you that concealed carry isn't needed at the State Fair. It is good thing that their vote doesn't count.

[Crossfire]

We have not been to the fair this year, but went last year. It would seem the "security professionals" they hired were the homeless people that frequent the area.

We were not impressed.

I certainly would not recommend going to the fair unarmed.

[Dragonfighter]

Went to the State Fair of the Great, Free and Sovereign Republic of the Lone Star State of Texas yesterday! Beautiful weather, perfect temperature, new Big Tex...great day and great time!

Carried Mr. T with me (Taurus PT-140) and was prepared for a scan, search, explanation, display of credentials and entry. (Not only can you carry at the fair invites all licensed chl's to do so on their web site.)

As I stood in line I watched person after person wanded by the guard and let in including cursory searches of bags. As I moved to my turn I got wanded and......NOTHING! It didn't go off, didn't make a sound, nothing, AND I WAS THE ONE WITH A GUN! <SNIP>

As I have said elsewhere, I have successfully carried there for years. I do remember one Friday, the first year they tried to keep guns out a lady took one to the hindquarters on the Midway, they never got an ID, much less caught the guy. They spun it saying it came from outside of Fair Park. This begs the question, during one of the busiest nights on the Midway, how did an errant bullet make it over the fence, past all of the buildings, zig zag its way through hundreds of people to finally become a pain in the rear to the young lady in question? Yeah, me too.

[jmra]

Security guards serve the same purpose as the locks on the doors at your house...they simply keep mostly honest people honest.
Not a lock made or a minimum wage security guard hired that is going to keep a bad guy out if he wants in.

[texanjoker]

Security guards serve the same purpose as the locks on the doors at your house...they simply keep mostly honest people honest.
Not a lock made or a minimum wage security guard hired that is going to keep a bad guy out if he wants in.

[Tic Tac]

It's all for show. TSA can't even keep a 9 year old from getting on an airplane.

[cb1000rider]

It's not called security theater for nothing.

I thought you were talking about the multi-Billion dollar mistake called the TSA... Wrong topic!


If that experience upset you, I think I'd definitely contact a superior... Or the State Fair administration. Clearly they are or aren't getting what they're paying for.

[TexasCajun]

Similar situation happened to me, the mrs, and jr at Gator Fest in Anahuac last month. Festival is in a public park (so cannot post 30.06). They had Sheriff auxiliary working "security". Sign at the gate listed a bunch of Do Nots, including no concealed weapons. The aux asked if I had any prohibited items. I just muttered an unintelligible response as I was getting jr's diaper bag ready for their form of inspection - which wasn't really even a good look at the contents or even in all of the compartments. Security Theater indeed!! Why even bother?

[Excaliber]

Security guards serve the same purpose as the locks on the doors at your house...they simply keep mostly honest people honest.
Not a lock made or a minimum wage security guard hired that is going to keep a bad guy out if he wants in.

I agree on the minimum wage security guard part. However, the lock part has a little more to it.

If one knows his way around locks and understands that the door, frame, hinges and lock are a system where the weakest part defines the security of the opening, one can indeed make life miserable enough for intruders that most random attackers will give up before getting in.

I've designed the door / lock / frame systems and seen the results of the subsequent unsuccessful burglary attempts that prove the point, but those systems aren't what you see in most residential construction.

It is true that if a truly determined individual wants to get through a particular door, comes prepared with everything he needs to do so, and can make all the noise and take all the time he wants, there is no doubt he can be successful.

However, burglars are like electricity - they follow the path of least resistance. In most cases, at least one of those factors is not unlimited and the motivation to work that hard to get through that door is usually not real strong when there are easier doors with the same goodies behind them available.

Moral of the story: the door / lock / frame / hinge system doesn't need to be impenetrable - it just needs to be significantly stronger and more difficult to defeat than the ones on other similar premises nearby.

[sjfcontrol]

Moral of the story: the door / lock / frame / hinge system doesn't need to be impenetrable - it just needs to be significantly stronger and more difficult to defeat than the ones on other similar premises nearby.

Yes, when running from the hungry bear, it is not necessary to outrun the bear... You just need to outrun your hiking partner.