The Transportation Security Administration has enacted a new policy that will begin April 25th, which allows airline passengers to carry pocketknives aboard airplanes. This decision by the TSA to alter U.S. airport security measures is absolutely absurd.
This decision seriously weakens the integrity of airline security and actually contradicts the very purpose of security and passenger safety.
A knife is considered a deadly weapon no matter whose hand grasps it. Each year, there are thousands of violent incidences in this country involving a knife, and the decision to allow anyone to carry them on planes is not just irresponsible but dangerous. How can the TSA, an administration whose main job is to secure all forms of transportation in this country, suddenly throw caution and safety to the wind like this?
In defense of the TSA, the purpose of the policy is to shift the focus from less dangerous items such as pocketknives and instead focus on more severe threats to airliners.
This is by all means unjustifiable reasoning.
Clearly the TSA has forgotten that it was box cutters held to flight attendant’s throats that were responsible for the takeover of the airplanes used to conduct the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
This policy not only endangers the lives and wellbeing of airline flight attendants; but also endangers all other passengers aboard airliners.
There is no justifiable reason for the TSA to subject passengers, who are already stressed out about flying, to the possibility of the person sitting next to them carrying a knife.
Not all crimes are planned in fact many violent crimes are a result of fits of rage. The term “air rage” was created to properly categorize the feelings of airline passengers who are extremely stressed out and irritable to the point where they “snap” on a fellow passenger or flight attendant. Now there are weapons in the hands of passengers and not disposable headphones.
Regardless of the TSA’s intentions for creating this new policy, the message it sends to the world is that we have relaxed our security for all U.S. airliners. With announcing their new policy, they have successfully sent out an unwritten invitation to test the boundaries of our U.S. airline security.
Airline security in this country is always taking preventative measures to keep its passengers and crews safe, but by allowing knives to be carried onto airplanes the TSA has forgone forward safety developments and have effectively taken one huge step in the wrong direction.