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TSA: Pistol design on purse not allowed

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Airport security agents say a replica gun is a replica gun, even if it was just a design on a Florida teenager's purse.

The Transportation Security Administration says its agents acted appropriately when they ordered 17-year-old Vanessa Gibbs to check her designer purse at the Norfolk, Va., airport because of the image of a pistol it had on it.

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The agency said "replica weapons have been prohibited since 2002," and that means even a very obvious replica, said News4 Jax.com in Jacksonville, Fla.

Gibbs remains flabbergasted at the hassle, which she says caused her to miss her flight home and wound up flying into Orlando instead of Jacksonville, much to the consternation of her mom.

"It's my style, it's camouflage, it has an old western gun on it," Gibbs told New4.Jax.com.

What irked Gibbs the most was the fact she had taken the bag on the flight to Norfolk without any trouble from the TSA.

"It's a purse, not a weapon," she said.

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