TSO Helps Colleagues Identify Firearm Parts
News & Happenings
November 19, 2007
Supervisory TSO Damon Miller (standing)
identifies parts of a disassembled
semi-automatic firearm. Clockwise (from
center) TSOs Tess Peel, Bob Epes,
Jayne Junemann and Lead TSO
Ted Jones.
Relying on his military training and familiarity with firearms, Transportation Security Officer Damon Miller, of Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers, conducts a training class for co-workers on identifying disassembled semi-automatic firearms.
Before joining TSA, Miller provided firearms training in the Army for more than five years. He further developed those skills for two years in the Florida Army National Guard. Even when a firearm is disassembled, Miller can identify its X-ray images.
He focuses on how to disassemble a semi-automatic firearm, identify its major components through hands-on visual aids, and how those parts work together. He also discusses principles of a semi-automatic firearm and compares it to revolvers. "I recognize that everyone learns differently," said Miller, "so I use both hands-on and visual demonstration techniques."
To ensure that the well-received training is widely available, Transportation Security Officers Patrice Studebaker and Bill Bradford were taught how to conduct sessions for the evening shift.
