GENE BLYTHE / AP
Joan Lowy at Time reports
Airline passengers will be able to carry small knives, souvenir baseball bats, golf clubs and other sports equipment onto planes beginning next month under a policy change announced Tuesday by the head of the Transportation Security Administration.
The new policy conforms U.S. security standards to international standards, and allows TSA to concentrate its energies on more serious safety threats, the agency said in a statement.
Nice to see some common sense returning to this area, although there is still a huge shortage of it. Anyone who really wants to bring a binary liquid or a sharpened plastic “knife” onto a plane really isn’t going to be stopped by the current measures. But we already know that.
In 2005, the TSA changed its policies to allow passengers to carry on airplanes small scissors, knitting needles, tweezers, nail clippers and up to four books of matches. The move came as the agency turned its focus toward keeping explosives off planes, because intelligence officials believed that was the greatest threat to commercial aviation.
And in September 2011, the TSA no longer required children 12 years old and under to remove their shoes at airport checkpoints. The agency recently issued new guidelines for travelers 75 and older so they can avoid removing shoes and light jackets when they go through airport security checkpoints.
If the US is relaxing these measures, why are we still taking knives from the likes of Richard Prosser?
One thing is clear, stopping Wogistanis from flying isn’t going to help.
The problem isn’t Wogistanis taking our knives away.
