Some of my handbag designs include conchos: A skull wearing a cowboy hat, rope-edged circles with Spanish Crosses or awareness ribbons or western stars, ovals with Southwestern designs.... I guess it's a good thing I haven't sourced and used a concho depicting a six-shooter.
Check out this article about a Florida teen who was detained by TSA because of the six-shooter design on her western purse:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/florida-teen-detained-tsa-design-her-purse-221835034.html
I don't know where to begin re: this incident, but Mr. E. and I experienced the same thing several years ago. We were flying from Detroit Metro to attend a Western Writers of America convention, so Mr. E. was wearing on his lapel a tiny pin of a silver Old West pistol with turquoise inlay grip. The
threatening weapon pin was 1.5 inches long and thinner than a credit card.
After the agent made him remove it, she actually pinched the grip between the tips of her thumb and index finger, held it up, and said, "You could use this to hold up the plane."
We had two options: go back and put it in our checked luggage (resulting in missing our flight), or it would be confiscated.
It wasn't a pricey item, but it held fond memories for Mr. E. He had purchased it in the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum gift shop while attending the Oklahoma City WWA convention in 1991. Allowing it to be confiscated wasn't an easy decision, based on principle. In the end, it was confiscated, relinquished to avoid missing our flight and all the headaches that entails.
Sometimes, I wonder who's enjoying that little silver and turquoise six-shooter....
