Plane security is so confusing – medicine is OK, but not hair gel or toothpaste or, as it turns out, loaded unregistered semiautomatic handguns.

We only know this, though, because former Law & Order actor Dennis Farina tried to board a plane with a loaded unregistered semiautomatic handgun in his briefcase and was promptly arrested for it.

Although some are accusing Dennis Farina of gross stupidity almost to the point of mental illness for trying to take a loaded gun onto a plane, we actually couldn’t disagree more – Farina’s arrest has just closed down another airport security loophole. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just unwitting foiled Al Qaeda’s latest sneaky plan to hijack a bunch of planes by hiding loaded guns in terrorists’ briefcases. He deserves your credit.

We’re starting to think that it might not be such a wonderful idea to act in a long-running American procedural crime show, because it obviously sends you loopy. Not so long ago a CSI actor was arrested with a mountain of drugs in his car, and now Law & Order star Dennis Farina has been arrested for trying to saunter onto a plane with a loaded gun in his briefcase.

What makes Dennis Farina’s arrest all the more surprising is that not only did he play a policeman in Law & Order, but he’s also played policemen in just about everything he’s starred in and he was actually a policeman for 20 years. You’d think that’d give him a slight grounding in the law – especially the law about, say, not taking a gun onto a plane, shooting all the cabin crew dead and slamming the plane into Mount Rushmore – but Farina’s actually got a pretty good excuse.

You see, it’s all a big accident. As an American, Dennis Farina uses a gun for everything – from shooting intruders to opening tin cans to signing his name on contracts in banks – and so he just forgot that the gun was in his briefcase. Nevertheless, he’s been arrested. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Farina, 64, was booked in a felony case after LAX screeners found a loaded handgun in his briefcase as he prepared to board a plane. The actor, who is often cast as a foul-mouthed mobster or cop, was contrite when he told airport police and FBI agents that he had forgotten he put the .22-caliber semi-automatic weapon in the case, authorities said. He spent most of the day in a Van Nuys jail and was released on $35,000 bail. “He was apologetic and very cooperative, and he said he understood what was going to happen,” said LAX Police Sgt. Jim Holcomb.

It’s been reported that Dennis Farnina’s bail was initially set at $25,000, up until police discovered that the gun was unregistered, at which point an extra $10,000 was slung on top.

As a former police officer, though, we’re sure that a swift guilty plea will keep Dennis Farina away from serious punishment. And that’s just as well, because he simply doesn’t have the array of excuses open to him that other celebrities in similar situations have.

Like when Snoop Dogg was arrested for trying to carry a 21-inch police baton onto a plane, his excuse was that it was a prop for an upcoming hip-hop music video shoot. If Dennis Farina decided to do that then he’d actually have to make a hip-hop music video and the next thing you know we’ll have to put up with having a 64-year-old white man called D-Farizzle being number one with a song called something like I’ll Fuck Everyone Up. How could that possibly be of any use to society?

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Actor Dennis Farina Arrested for bringing gun to airport - LA Times