[jason-phillips]

I got pulled aside because I absentmindedly showed them my concealed carry permit, not my driver's license. I told them I was a consultant working for their local government and was going back to Austin. No harm no foul.

[oceanplexian]

If the system used any kind of logic whatsoever a CCW permit would not only allow you to bypass airport security but also carry in the airport (Speaking as both a pilot and a permit holder)

Would probably eliminate the need for the TSA security theater so that will probably never happen.

[mothballed]

You can carry in the airport in AZ without a permit, in the unsecured areas. I think there was only one broo-ha-ha because some particularly bold guy did it openly with a rifle (can't remember if there's more to the story).

[some_random]

The point of the security theater is to assuage the 95th percentile scared-of-everything crowd, they're the same people who want no guns signs in public parks.

[mrguyorama]

No.

Right from the beginning it was a handout to groups who built the scanning equipment, who were basically personal friends with people in the admin. We paid absurd prices for niche equipment, a lot of which was never even deployed and just sat in storage.

Several of the hijackers were literally given extended searches by security that day.

A reminder that what actually stopped hijackings (like, nearly entirely) was locking the cabin door, which was always doable, and has not ever been breached. Not only did this stop terrorist hijackings, it stopped more casual hijackings that used to be normal, it could also stop "inside man" style hijackings like that one with a disgruntled FedEx pilot, it was nearly free to implement, always available, harms no one's rights, doesn't turn airport security into a juicy bombing target, doesn't slow down an important part of the economy, doesn't invent a massive bureaucracy and LEO in the arms of a new american agency that has the goal of suppressing domestic problems and has never done anything useful. Keep in mind, shutting the cockpit door is literally how the terrorists themselves protected themselves from being stopped and is the reason Flight 93 couldn't be recovered.

TSA is utterly ineffective. They have never stopped an attack, regularly fail their internal audits, the jobs suck, and they pay poorly and provide minimal training.

[FireBeyond]

> regularly fail their internal audits

Not even. It's that they rarely pass the audits. Many of the audits have a 90-95% "missed suspect item/s" result.

[jerlam]

That may have been true 25 years ago. All the rules are now mostly an annoyance and don't reassure anyone.

There weren't a lot of people voicing opposition to TSA's ending of the shoes off policy earlier this year.

[bediger4000]

You're right not a lot of people objected to TSA ending the no shoes safety rule, and it's a shame. I certainly objected and tried to make my objections known, but apparently 23 or 24 years of the iconic custom of taking shoes off went to waste because the TSA decided to slack off