The two preceding posts show me, at least, what is wrong with our world post 9/11. Two states of mind seem to have become permanent; ignorance and fear.
A gun is not, as so many suppose, a malignant, sentient being. It has no life of its own and cannot send out a heat -seeking missile toward a "breathing" body. It needs to be picked up, held in the hand and pointed. Then the trigger needs to be pulled. All supposing that the gun is loaded and the safety is off. An automatic, by its design, cannot be fired unless it is grasped correctly, something a small hand cannot do. A revolver has a heavy trigger action and is difficult for a child to fire. Sure they both can do a lot of damage, but again I stress, it has to be a deliberate action.
So while a child is rummaging through someone else's bag, and presuming Mom or Dad is off at the bar drinking strength and courage for the upcoming flight, what is the bag's owner doing? Looking on and laughing? Do we care about the other dangerous items that can be found in a stranger's bag? His pills? Lighter? Electric stapler? Shaving kit? Or is it just (shock horror) guns? And why just at the airport? What about at the mall or the railway station, or are guns only carried by evil passengers and crew at airports?
If one of my kids was as ignorant about life I would despair, and in fact I do, because so many have bought into the current stupidity and without a group effort the clowns will win.
The second state of mind, fear, is probably worse, since it allows ignorance and resignation to thrive. Because of fear, we are doing bin Laden's work for him, destroying our freedoms and allowing the clowns to take away our rights without protest. We choose to believe them when they tell us that the airports need to be made into fortresses (at least on the side we can see, never mind that the backside is just as porous as it ever was) and it is GOOD that 15-20 percent of the passengers have given up flying because of the hassles. We are told, over and over, by word and deed, that flying is inherently unsafe, and we are under an immediate threat of terrorist action; only the alert government can protect us. Well, since we know that all governments lie (it is their job, but it is not our job to believe them) and that governments work on the principle of the lowest tender, we should know that they cannot protect us, and that the threat as they present it is not real, it is only a means whereby the government can grow itself.
The real risk of flying is still the same as it ever was: pilot error. terrorist threats are, statistically, very tiny, and less likely now that we are on our guard. The place we need to develop strategies to deal with the threat is in the air. Something that is not being done. The best airport security cannot protect us, it cannot even come close. Look at the last series of hijackings, just over the last few months. The weapons used were a small penknife (on El Al, the world's safest they say), a bottle of petrol, an asthma inhaler and in the last one there was no weapon, just a group of guys who broke down the flight deck door and laid into the pilots. In the only successful hijacking the perp used a TV remote control! Even Richard Reid was stopped not by airport security but by an alert passenger who was suspicious that the guy sitting next to him was trying to set fire to his feet and called the attendant. I repeat, in case it needs to be said again: Airport security cannot protect us.
But we have given up looking out for ourselves and have submitted to Big Brother. Why have we done this; have we not learned from history that this will fail, and that we will lose our rights and freedoms without increasing our safety in any way? Are we stupid or just cowards?