Now this is just plain dumb: Security officials at Los Angeles Internationa Airport (LAX) confiscated the 2-inch replica plastic army rifle from a GI Joe action figure. According to the passenger, a 55-year old woman who was bringing the toy as a gift for her grandson, "They examined the toy as if it was going to shoot them. Then they asked me if there were toy grenades as well. I thought they were joking, but they weren’t smiling — they were deadly serious." When the 7-year old grandson finally received the toy (sans rifle), he asked his grandmother, "Don’t those people understand the gun was a toy? and couldn’t shoot". An LAX security chief said he was just following orders: "We have instructions to confiscate anything that looks like a weapon or a replica. If GI Joe was carrying a replica then it had to be taken from him." Maybe it's just me, but maybe the airport screeners should concentrate on improving their 48% miss rate on real weapons, rather than going after the 2-inch replica guns. (Via Metafilter.)