Treating passengers and crew as criminals, with unreasonable searches and confiscation of knitting needles and nail clippers is not a way to improve security, it is only a sham and those responsible will be truly to blame for the next terror attack. Nothing the authorities are doing now will prevent it, since only crew and passengers are subject to screening. Thousands of people, many of whom have had no background check, are allowed free access to the airport.
Surveys show that security is able to catch less than a half of the guns, knives and such carried on board, which tells us two things:
1. Security is useless, since only ONE weapon in the hands of a criminal has to get through. And the way it is set up now, nobody else on board will be able to resist, since all the good guys have been disarmed.
2. The reports of all the guns, knives, and other sharp objects getting through, and indeed all the ones caught, show that it is not the weapon that hijacks airplanes, it is not the gun, nor the knife...it is the criminal. If every person on board had a gun, security would not be compromised, since the vast majority of us are honest, law abiding people. We would (and have) do our best to stop any criminal act on any airplane we were on, and if we had reasonable weapons of our own, it would be easier for us, the good guys. Concentrating on potential weapons is stupid, we should be looking at the real threat.
The tools for better security include profiling, better ID and observation. Crews need to be more alert, and I do not mean that they should refuse travel to any Arab families or Secret Service officers. Any person who has a weapon permit should be welcomed on board. Give 'em a free ticket, I say.
It is way past time for the FAA to have come up with a new policy for handling hijackers, especially as guidance for the crews. I always get a laugh when I read how some pilot has briefed his crew and passengers on what to do if they have a threat on board, since he would then be subject to a law suit and if he expects the FAA to back him up, forgetaboutit. The 'shoe bomber' was stopped not because of any action by 'security' or the authorities, but because one of those they are treating as a criminal (a passenger) caught him trying to set fire to his shoes.
The whole and sole point of the gross enlargement of the security apparatus (including the Homeland Security division of the US govt) is to expand government and take more control over us, those who pay their salaries. It is not to better security, since all those actions that are plainly needed are not being done. So long as we allow this charade to continue, we should not expect safer skies, but rather higher costs, less development, more hassles and fewer paying customers.