I’m amazed by the furor over the proposal to allow teeny-tiny scissors on board airplanes.
Edmund Hawley, the assistant secretary of homeland security who is in charge of the security agency, testified before the Commerce Committee that the ban on scissors was sensible when flights resumed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But Mr. Hawley said other measures that had since been put in place, including fortified cockpits and an increased use of air marshals, reduced the chance of terrorists storming a cockpit, as they did on four planes that day.
Mr. Hawley said that checkpoint screeners were opening one bag in four to look for scissors and small tools spotted on X-rays, and that this was a distraction from identifying greater threats. “It’s not about scissors, it’s about bombs,” Mr. Hawley testified. “Sorting through thousands of bags a day at two or three minutes apiece to sort out small scissors and tools does not help security. It hurts it.” Weighing the risk of small scissors and tools against that of bombs, he said, “If you do the analysis, it is not even close.”
The alternatives being bombasted about by Congressfolk?
- Reducing the number of carry-on bags from two to one. (Sen. Stevens, (R) Alaska) so as to reduce the bag checking burden on screeners.
- Legally blocking any reduction in the list of forbidden items, only its increase. (Rep. Crowley, (D) New York, Rep. Markey, (D) Massachusetts, Sen. Clinton, (D) New York), so that the TSA (“Take Scissors Aboard,” according to Markey) can only increase the burden on passengers, regardless of what it deems as appropriate.
- Passengers should be allowed to have knitting needles, but small scissors (for “paper dolls”) are unnecessary (Sen. Inouye, (D) Hawaii)
Are these folks insane? Or do they own a lot of stock in cruise ships and passenger railways, and thus have no qualms about killing air travel?
Mr. Hawley testified on Monday that there were thousands of items that could be used as weapons and that banning scissors and screwdrivers would not stop the threat. “Pens, pencils, belts, credit cards, soda cans, bare hands and many more,” he said.
Yes, well, I’m sure that if we forbade those things on airplanes, Congress would heartily support it, too.
The one criticism I’ve heard of the proposed TSA rules change that makes any sense actually came from some conversation I heard while going through security at Denver yesterday. One TSA person was complaining to another that it would actually make things slower and more contentious at security lines if they had to visually gauge scissors in the x-ray machines and/or send such backs over for inspection and measurement, vs. just banning anything that looked like scissors. I can see the gent’s point, though I’m not sure I agree with the conclusion.
But the only thing I can conclude is that our esteemed Congresscritters never actually have to worry about baggage inspections (they have aides for that sort of thing, I suppose), or else the desire to be More Security-Conscious Than Thou is overriding any common sense they might have.