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Comment by tlrobinson | Hacker News Reader

My friend accidentally took a multi-tool through airport screening shortly after 9/11 and had to lawyer up to get the resulting shitstorm to go away (and he's white and an American citizen)

On the other hand, I remember when I was a kid in the 90s and accidentally took my pocket knife (3" blade) through screening, and they found it but let me bring it on the plane...

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I used to take my CRKT M16-14 knife on the nerd bird SJC<->SEA round trip twice a week. Nobody cared. This was mid-90s until just before 9/11. I didn't try to hide it - just tossed it in the bin with my keys etc.

https://www.copsplus.com/prodnum4396.php

Well, before 9/11 you didn't have to check your firearms. You could carry them on as long as they were in a case. Things were more reasonable back then.

A lot of people wouldn't consider it reasonable to allow people to carry guns around, least of all on a plane.

It turns out that many people have silly -yet strongly held- beliefs. :) shrug

I can see how one might immediately jump to the conclusion that I said people bringing firearms on board an airplane is reasonable. The sentences are so close to one another. I can see how tempting it would be to do that. But just for the sake of argument, let's pretend I did say that. So... How do you feel about armed air marshals?

> Well, before 9/11 you didn't have to check your firearms. You could carry them on as long as they were in a case.

Do you have a source for that? Because for as long as I can remember they have had to be checked, including in the 90s.

Absolutely not true. You haven't been able to carry a firearm onto an airplane for, pretty much, forever.

You always could, and still can, check a firearm into luggage on a flight.

Absolutely true. In the 90s, I went to a regional shooting competition with a handful of other high school kids, and we brought firearms onto the plane.

I'm sorry, but you are just wrong. The relevant US code is at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/46505 -- it's been in place since the 50's. Security screening to detect weapons has been in place since the early 1970's, after a rash of hijackings in the late 60's. You must be mis-remembering.

I accidentally took a multi-tool (with several blades) through an airport security checkpoint 2 weeks after 9/11. It was found on my person, and confiscated. I was told I could collect it on arrival at the 'weird items' desk at London Heathrow baggage claim. When I arrived a Heathrow it was waiting for me in a padded envelope at the desk.

I was flying out of Beijing, you know... that country with terrible human rights... To be clear: there are multiple human rights issues in China, many of which are far worse than the US. Just not everything.

I flew SwissAir first class in the '90's and they actually handed out branded Swiss Army knives to passengers on the plane... The good ol' days.

My grandmother collected the silverware that airplanes handed out. Now we've got a pretty funny assortment of airline-branded metal knives.

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