TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3
You can ’t spell
“harmonica”
without “harm.”
And you know
what they say:
First do no harm.
Well, maybe
they should say,
“Do no
harmonica.”
This is all a
convoluted way of getting to
today’s column, which is about
what I call “magnetometer
moments.” That’s when an
innocent item packed in your
carry-on bag raises alarm bells in
the airport security line.
Phil Lindberg’s
magnetometer moment involved
the aforementioned mouth
organ. He was learning to play
the harmonica and realized the
best way to get be tter is to always
have one about your person.
“The harmonica was in my
carry-on backpack as I went
through security on my way to a
work-related conference,” wrote
Phil, of Columbia. “Yes, I
experienced that embarrassing
moment as I was pulled out of
the security line to open up my
bag.”
The TSA officer told Phil that,
when X-rayed, a harmonica can
look just like a handgun
magazine.
“After considering it — a
metal, rectangular object about
the right size and shape; the
brass harmonica reeds could
appear to be a magazine spring
— I agreed with him,” Phil wrote.
For the record, Phil was
packing a Hohner Special 20
harmonica, in the key of C.
Wrote Phil: “There are those
who might consider such a
harmonica a dangerous weapon,
but perhaps not in the way the
TSA is worried about.”
Reid Fisher of San Martin,
Calif., usually travels with a capo.
No, not a high-ranking member
of the Sicilian mafia, but a metal
device that is clamped onto a
guitar neck to change the
instrument’s key.“Since guitarists often forget
their capos, I often carry one to
music jobs, and one lives in my
dopp kit with the toothbrush,
etc.,” Reid wrote. “The model I
have is pretty much all steel, with
some rubber on it and a couple of
pivoting parts.”
It looks a bit weird, like a
torture device. That’s probably
why Reid was pulled aside while
going through security and
asked to empty that bag.
“They were very serious until I
could credibly explain what it
was and how it was used,” Reid
wrote. “They were a bit skepticalat first since I didn’t have any
instrument, but there were
guitar picks and other music
stuff.”
Suitably convinced, they let
Reid through.
Gaithersburg’s Ken Glasser is
also a guitarist. Sometimes when
he tr avels, he takes his Little
Martin acoustic guitar, set up for
lap-style playing. And Ken brings
a blue pouch filled with guitar
accessories: thumb picks,
fingerpicks, a tuner, a battery for
the tuner and a few capos. Even
when Ken doesn’t have his
guitar, he has his blue pouch.
After all, wrote Ken, “You just
never know when you might run
into a Guitar Emergency and I
want to be prepared.”
When the pouch is nestled
inside another carry-on bag, it
often piques the interest of
airport screeners.
“Finally, one day a TSA agent
said to me it would be easier for
everybody if I just pulled the
pouch out and put it on the
scanner belt alone. Which I’ve
done ever since,” Ken wrote. “I
really don’t mind. Nobody wants
to be the one who let somebody
through.”
Linda Ward of Leesburg
writes: “Due to my own personal
peculiarities, I travel with a
ukulele and an electronic tuner
and with my clothes on wire
hangers (so that I don’t have to
use the hangers in a hotel). I also
use facial wipes.”Apparently, the combination
of those three things — the
plastique-like density of the
facial wipes, the metal wires, the
mechanism of the tuner — looks
suspicious. Suspicious enough
for Linda to get extra attention at
the airport.
“I’m a 73-year-old retired first-
grade teacher, so it’s very
embarrassing to be pulled over
for a thorough luggage check-in
and pat-down by a whole team of
agents,” she wrote.
A ukulele may not be
threatening, but the same can’t
be said of what Irv Smietan of
Fairfax c arried through
Heathrow Airport in London
about 25 years ago.
As Irv’s bag went through the
X-ray machine, the operator
stopped it. He spoke briefly with
Irv to confirm his suspicions and
then called over some of the
more junior screeners.
This was a teachable moment.
What they were seeing on the
screen, the security official
explained, was not a pipe bomb.
It was a child-size set of
bagpipes.
Wrote Irv: “A short time for
education and we were on our
way.”
Wednesday: More
magnetometer moments.
[email protected]
Twitter: @johnkelly For previous columns, visit
washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.Harmonica, other devices strike discordant notes in security lines
John
Kelly's
Washington
DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Readers say a harmonica, a gui tar capo and a n electric tuner have
caused false alarms when first screened by airport TSA agents.Results from Oct. 25DISTRICT
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washingtonpost.com/local/lotteryLOTTERIESTHE DISTRICTP rosecutors move on
counts in 1 of 2 killingsD.C. police announced S unday
that they had arrested a man in
two separate homicides, one that
occurred Saturday and another
last year. But prosecutors said
Monday that they are moving
forward with criminal charges in
only the most recent killing.
A D.C. Superior Court judge
ordered the suspect, Javon
Duckwilder, 24, of Southeast
Washington, detained and
scheduled a hearing for Nov. 4.
Duckwilder is charged with one
count of first-degree murder while
armed in the fatal shooting
Saturday o f Juwan Smith, 23, of
Southeast Washington. Smith was
shot in the 2800 block of Alabama
Avenue SE.
An arrest affidavit filed in court
Monday says Duckwilder and
Smith were arguing outside a gas
station when the shooting
occurred about 8:15 p.m. Police
said in the affidavit that
Duckwilder w as arrested soon
after a nd that he had a gun.
D.C. police also charged
Duckwilder with first-degree
murder while armed in the Oct. 5,
2020, killing of Alexander Nwogu,
23, of Blacksburg, Va.
Nwogu, a recent Virginia Tech
graduate, was killed at a g as
station in the 4900 block of
Connecticut Avenue NW, at
Fessenden Street. Police said
Nwogu suffered blunt trauma to
the back of his head and a
gunshot wound to his back.
Police said then that they were
investigating robbery as a motive.
Bill Miller, a spokesman for the
U.S. attorney’s of fice, said
prosecutors decided to not move
forward on criminal charges in
Nwogu’s killing now b ut would
not comment o n the reason. He
said the case remains under
investigation by D.C. police.
Duckwilder’s attorney did not
respond to an interview request. A
D.C. police spokesman d id not
respond to a request for comment.
— Peter HermannMARYLANDD.C. man dies after
shooting in LandoverA man was found with
gunshot wounds in a parking lot
in Landover on Friday and later
died at a h ospital, Prince
George’s County police said.
Police are investigating the
fatal shooting of Anthony Forest,
34, of the District in the 1900
block of Belle Haven Drive.
Officers responded to a
reported shooting about
5:40 p.m. Friday and found
Forest at the scene with the fatal
gunshot wounds, police said.
An investigation is ongoing to
determine a motive and identify
suspects, police said.
— Jasmine HiltonLOCAL DIGESTBY OVETTA WIGGINS
AND REBECCA TANMontgomery County’s corona-
virus case rate has been going
down, meaning the county could
lift its indoor mask mandate by
the middle of this week, County
Executive Marc Elrich said Mon-
day.
According to the county’s board
of health regulation, the mask
mandate should be automatically
lifted when the county records
seven consecutive days of “moder-
ate transmission,” meaning a c ase
rate of between 10 to 49 new infec-
tions per 100,000 residents. Data
from the state and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
shows that Montgomery is in a
state of moder ate transmission,
but because of reporting lags, the
CDC places the county lower on its
seven-day count than the state.
Regardless, Elrich (D) said, it
looks likely that the county will hit
its threshold to lift the mandate
this week. “Assuming that every-
thing stays the way it is, we’re
going to be in the right place,” he
said.
According to state data, about
70 percent of Montgomery resi-
dents are fully vaccinated, the sec-
ond-highest rate after Howard
County.
Elrich added, however, that he
would not hesitate to recommend
th at the board of health reinstate a
mask mandate if transmission lev-
els surge again this winter. He said
he hopes that restaurants and
shops that have implemented in-
door mask requirements will keep
them in place even after the
countywide mandate ends.
“Our masking has been one of
the hallmarks of why we’ve been
able to drive down exposure,” he
said. “I would hate for people to
think that this is automatically the
permanent end to it.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R)on Monday hailed the progress the
state has made in recent months
in distributing vaccines and the
resulting drops in case and trans-
mission rates.
But he is also urging people,
especially those with underlying
conditions, to get vaccinated.
He said Monday that more than
half of the Maryland residents
who died last month of covid-19,
both vaccinated and unvaccinat-
ed, had diabetes and hyperten-
sion, indicating the necessity for
vaccinations and boosters among
that population.
Hogan said state health officials
are strongly recommending that
residents with underlying condi-
tions get a shot as soon as possible.
Hogan said the state has the sup-
ply and capacity to provide a vac-
ci ne and a booster to anyone who
wants one.
“From day one of this crisis, our
focus has always been on prevent-
ing hospitalizations and deaths,and these vaccines have all prove n
to be extremely effective at this,”
Hogan said. “However, the data we
now have clearly does show that
the level of protection does begin
to wane over time, beginning after
five or six months, especially for
those who are immunocompro-
mised, have comorbidities, and
are most vulnerable.”
Neil J. Sehgal, an assistant pro-
fessor of health policy and man-
agement at the University of
Maryland School of Public Health,
said he recently spoke to his stu-
dents about the death of Colin
Powell, who was vaccinated but
also was being treated for cancer,
which can suppress immunity.
“We’ve known for a long time
that comorbidities like diabetes
and hypertension lead to an ele-
vated risk if you are infected,” he
said. “And we also know that im-
munity wanes over time.”
Hogan also is encouraging par-
ents of children ages 5 to 11 to getthem vaccinated once the shots
become available as early as next
week. He said more than a half a
million children in Maryland
would be eligible for the vaccines
and that the state has ordered
180,000 doses to dis tribute.
“We think that will serve us
well,” Health Secretary Dennis
Schrader said.
Schrader said Maryland placed
its order for vaccines for the
youngest group of soon-to-be-eli-
gible residents last week. The state
expects to receive authorization
from the federal government as
early as next week.
Jilene Chen, deputy health sec-
retar y, said the state has been
working closely with school sys-
tems to ensure that doses are dis-
tributed. She said the shots will
also be available at pediatrician
offices, local health departments
and pharmacies.
[email protected]
[email protected]MARYLAND
Montgomery on track to lift i ndoor mask mandate this week
My God, there was the Sandra
Parks, 13, who had just won an
essay contest for a piece she wrote
about gun violence in her
neighborhood before she was
gunned down by a stray bull et in
her Milwaukee bedroom in 2018.
Or just Google “6-year-old” and
“stray bullet” and you’ll find
stories of kids hit by gunfire as they
sat in cars, homes or garages in
D.C., Philadelphia, West Fargo,
N.D., Canton, Miss., Chicago and
Harris County, Tex. All this year. All
of them 6 y ears old.
Each of the shooters whose
stray bullets maimed or killed
these people were targeting others,
but they might as well have been
pointing the gun right at them.
Here’s what you may not know:
A .22 caliber bullet can travel as far
as 1.5 miles. So any time someone
fires a gun in a neighborhood, a
park, a street, they are committing
attempted murder upon every
person within a mile and a h alf.
The morning before White-
Hooks was killed in D.C., she
posted a flurry of uplifting
messages on her Facebook page.
One of them was a cartoon
drawing of how we envision our
life — a smooth, straight bike ride
to a triumphant end. Another was
a rocky path full of gullies and
ditches, rainstorms and
mountains. “Sometimes, God
doesn’t do things the way we think
he should. But God has a perfect
plan for your life. Trust God.”
I know God never intended a
stray bullet for this wonderful
woman.
[email protected]
Twitter: @petuladsurvived and had surgery to
remove it.
Sally Rose Strelecki, 27, was in
her apartment in Centennial,
Colo., on the morning of Oct. 2,
when a bullet tore through the
wall and lodged into her brain.
She’s in an induced coma.
These are not bullets flying
magically from their ammo boxes,
they aren’t mishaps of trained,
skilled, licensed and legal
marksmen who somehow missed
their legal targets.Lance Cpl. Gabe Heefner, 20,
was visiting his grandparents in
Iowa City on Oct. 17 before his first
deployment with the Marine
Corps to Okinawa, Japan, when he
was hit in the left temple by a —
stray bull et. He was driving back
from a Panda Express. He is in
critical condition, with a portion of
his skull removed.
Kyla Sobers, 16, had just ended
her school day Oct. 1 when she was
hit in the head by a, yup, stray
bullet in a Brooklyn park. Shegunfire goes down.
Melanie Yates, 23, was reading
the Bible to her daughter, putting
her to bed in her home in Zion, Ill.,
when a bullet flew through the
house and into her head, killing
her on Oct. 19. Stray bullets, news
accounts said.
A 54-year-old woman was inside
her home in Syracuse, N.Y., on
Sunday evening when a bullet
fired outside her home flew
through the window and hit her in
the midsection. Stray bullet.married, one who was working in
D.C. and one who planned to head
off to college next fall. She posted
positive messages to friends
specific to their travails. And a
yummy caramel apple recipe she
wanted to make for Halloween.
I found all this looking at her
social media, looking for friends
and family to interview. And I was
thinking about all the times “stray
bullets” accompany crime stories.
And at that moment, I saw an
email pop up in my inbox. It was
about the Firearms Policy
Coalition effort to raise money to
challenge gun safety legislation
across the country.
They want to challenge a whole
slate of states for banning
handgun carrying by those under
- They want to challenge assault
weapons bans. And they’re furious
about California’s “rationing ban,”
which allows the purchase of only
one firearm every 30 days.
Oh, and my favorite part of their
fundraising efforts — the
controversial security-for-hire
outfit Blackwater International
has offered to donate $1 to the
coalition for every box of their
“Heavy Hitter” 12-gauge shotgun
ammunition sold in California
through the end of the year.
We need more bullets?
Tell that to the people hit by
bullets in their cars, in their
homes, on the patio of a fancy
hotel in a charming seaside city.
The 8-year-old in the living room
playing video games. These are the
people who were never in the
places you’d think bad stuff and
DVORAK FROM B1
PETULA DVORAK
For scores of u nintentional victims, stray bullets are no accident
MICHAEL BLACKSHIRE/THE WASHINGTON POST
Friends and family of 8-year-old P.J. Evans watch during his funeral i n Hyattsville on Sept. 10. The b oy
was fatally struck by a s tray bullet while playing video games in an apartment living room.Subscriber ExclusivesIt’s All Good: The Optimist, a Newsletter from The Washington Post
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