Air travel and weapons
I was always amazed that TSA would take my nail clippers or pocket knife. Then, when I’d get on the plane, the flight attendant would hand me a can of beer or soda or juice. A can I could empty then tear open to make a bladed weapon. And I have also, when flying, made certain to keep in my carry on bag a bar of soap and a pair of socks. You know, just in case some one gets a case of crazy or Sudden Jihad Syndrome. Put soap in sock, hit, repeat. Sure, it’s not whiz-bang tacticool but one smack upside the noggin and it’s coloring books for Christmas.
Apparently the geniuses at the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology figured out that there are weapons all over planes. Like Marko said: Your weapon is that squishy grey mass between your ears—everything else is just a tool.
Update: As The Duck points out in comments, that doesn’t count the various office supplies that are in the bag.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:31 am
3 bic pens
November 19th, 2009 at 11:06 am
Remember, this is the same TSA that wouldn’t allow a plane’s pilot to carry on a dinner knife.
a) it was the exact same knife they give the passengers with the in-flight meal – he bought it from the airline for exactly that reason. The crew, including – bear with me here – the pilot, already have access to these knives during the flight.
b) He’s the pilot. If you can’t trust him with a dinner knife, you’ve got bigger worries, since he’s the one flying the frakking plane!!
Intelligence does not seem to be present in the TSA.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:51 am
The pilot? The guy holding the stick that can make the plane fly into the ground? What were they possibly worried he would do with the knife? Attempt to perform brain surgery on himself?
November 19th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I recently bought a 1 1/2 pound walking stick with a solid brass horse hame knob as a handle. It’s a dandy cane that could double as a noggin-knockin club should Sudden Jihad Syndrome break out and TSA let me carry it right on to my flights just 2 weeks ago. I was surprised that the cabin crew didn’t even want to store it for me, just told me to put it in the overhead bins. Surprisingly, the spousal unit thinks I bought it just to take the load off my bad back…
November 19th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
I shoot with one of the Armed Flight Deck Instructors, yes he carries a loaded Sig onto the plane, but he can’t have a pair of nail clippers, (might hurt somebody)
November 19th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Intelligence has nothing to do with it, it is not security, it is security theater.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Remember those cell phones of the back of the chair. Why not put a taser right next to it. The pilot arms them from the cockpit. Have the taser on a steel retention cable.
New briefing from attendants would explain how to point said taser at bad guy and pull the trigger….
November 19th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
My idea, thought of by noon on 9/11/01, was batons on every seat back. The cable is a nice addition, so hippies don’t steal them.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I worry that an evangelical Christian will get Sudden Rapture Symptom and put the plane into a dive to see who floats up (besides him or her self, of course).
November 19th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Amen to that, RML ! (And I believe the affliction is called Sudden Rapture Syndrome).