A few years back one of my many brothers got in trouble with the law. When his court date came up he asked if I would accompany him. I said sure and showed up at the appointed time. I had never been to court and when I arrived I was asked to step through a metal detector. It beeped and when I emptied my pockets out came my banjo capo. A capo is a small tool that fits on the neck of a stringed instrument to raise the tone of the instrument.
The woman looked at it and asked what it was and after I told her said that I couldn’t bring it into the courtroom. When I asked why she said it could be used as a weapon. I looked at her, then the weapon and then back at her. I took it back to the car and when I returned she told me her grandfather played the banjo. She wished she had learned.
A couple years later I was leaving work and when I went through the metal 
detector it buzzed and I pulled out a banjo mute. It is essentially a heavy piece of metal that attaches to the bridge to deaden the vibration and quiet the sound. The guard wanted to know what it was and why I would carry it. He finally called his supervisor over to make sure I wasn’t leaving with something that I shouldn’t.
Recently I had to go to court to pay a traffic ticket and when I had to empty mypockets before I could go through the metal detector. The woman looked at my glass slide and asked if it was a drug device. Only after I placed it on my finger and played some air guitar did she understand what it was really for.
With all of the recent trouble with the TSA I can only imagine how hard it must be for a travelling musician.
