Is TSA serious about letting people carry knives? | Hacker News Reader

Is TSA serious about letting people carry knives?

cnn.com

6 pointskunle4 comments

I don't know about you, but I find that blatantly offensive. When terrorists use box cutters and pocketknives to slit your colleagues' throats, you don't move on so easily. And that is why I am so utterly slack-jawed at the decision to allow the same weapons that were used to kill so many people. In 2004, the 9/11 Commission found that terrorists used knives such as Leatherman tools to overtake the crew.

This is just as true everywhere else. Should we have security screening at malls, on busses, and checkpoints on public streets to make sure nobody's carrying a pocket knife?

On 9/11 the passengers had no idea that they were about to fly into buildings. Threatening to stab someone if the pilot doesn't open the cockpit would never work today; the assumption is that if a hijacker takes control of a plane then everyone on board is very likely to die.

I can only assume that the author thinks sharp objects should be illegal everywhere?

I concur with everything I've read by Bruce Schneier re: "security theater" as practiced by the TSA, and I think the TSA could/should backtrack a lot further than merely re-allowing small knives.

Post-9/11, a small knife is not a threat to airline safety if for no other reason than (a) the policies are explicit that threatening a hostage will never again result in control of the plane, and (b) the bad guys know that.

If the search for knives truly is the culprit that's clogging up screening lanes, maybe those who bring them should be fined.

This single sentence could potentially solve the entire problem. By having a financial penalty, instead of just confiscating the problematic item, would force people to reconsider what is and isn't allowed.

Doubtful. There's already a financial penalty: the loss of the confiscated item. Increasing the penalty (by adding a fine) would just make the process more frustrating -- nobody's trying to take a pocket knife through security on purpose. (Nor would adding a fine make the search any easier to carry out.)

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