As far as I understand, you're all talking about the situation in the USA. What about this: My dad took a flight from Brussels to Nice a few days after WTC. Before preparing his luggage, he called me to find out what he could (not) put in his hand luggage. I told him to not bring handluggage, just his wallet and passport. When he went through the security check at BRU airport, he was surprised that handluggage wasn't checked, neither at the first (x-ray)check nor at the gate. His surprise was even bigger when the FA's came round with their DF trolley: It was no problem to buy swiss knifes etc.on board!!! He thought security would be tighter in France, but it was even worse! Apparantly, only pax on flights to and from the USA are being checked.
My point: If we want aviation to be safer for both pax and crew, ALL flights should be treated equal. Only then we can try to prevent another disaster like 11/9.