The terrorists have won.

Okay, let's say we dispense with all pre-flight searches. How do you fight a suicide bomber with a handgun or other weapon?
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Suicide bombers need bombs. I don't think anyone's objecting to searching passengers and luggage for bombs.

Searching for bombs, however, is not easy. Bombs don't require much or any metal, so a terrorist might even be able to wear one going through a metal detector. There are different types of high explosives, and a detector has to look for all of them to be effective.

Given the miserable success rate airport screeners have of catching guns and knives, I think that they would fail to catch a cleverly-built bomb most of the time. What they're primarily trained to look for are prebuilt bombs. Put some semtex in candy bar wrappers, carry on a multimeter with blasting caps disguised as leads... rig a bluetooth remote detonator using a cellphone and a wireless earpiece...
 
Did anyone say, "Let passengers fly armed but don't search them"?

We could allow carry of all sorts of items that are now prohibited, but still have people go through security checks, you know.

We could look for bombs, and still allow someone with a Spyderco Paramilitary, or a Glock 27, on board. And if you're worried about that person being a terrorist, comfort yourself with the fact that since others will be armed, there will at least be a defense against whatever he attempts.

Oh, and the pilots would be armed too, no doubt, since the vast majority of them wants to be, and the only thing currently stopping them is the FFDO program, which is run by Homeland Security and they don't want pilots to be armed, and have dragged their feet and impeded the arming of pilots since day one! :mad:


-azurefly
 
How about only allowing only dead passengers on board? Ok, for ease of boarding I'll let them board while alive and then an air marshall can kill them all before the plane departs. It's so safe.
 
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