Airport security is still a joke

Another report is soon to be out and the results are as expected:

WASHINGTON — Screening at U.S. airports is no better now than before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives who was briefed Friday about an investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office and one by the Homeland Security Department. 

“A lot of people will be shocked at the billions of dollars we’ve spent and the results they’re going to see,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee.

Improving the ability to find dangerous materials has been a top goal of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration since it took over the security task at about 450 airports in early 2002. More than 45,000 people were hired.

Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, the ranking Democrat on the aviation subcommittee, also was briefed on the two reports, which are to be released within a month.

The TSA, which did not immediately return telephone calls Friday seeking comment, has said in the past that the tests used to measure screener performance are much more rigorous than they were before the Sept. 11 hijackings.

Since then, screeners have been much more aggressive about seizing prohibited items. Each month, screeners confiscate about a half-million objects from passengers, including, on average, 160,000 knives, 2,000 box cutters and 70 guns.

Although they will claim they just need more money for training and better equipment the real problem is that it’s an unsolvable problem from this approach.  There are better solutions available but they are politically unacceptable.

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2 thoughts on “Airport security is still a joke

  1. I’ve never owned a .308. I have a .223 to handle things from 0 to 500 yards and .300 Win Mag that will go out to beyond 1000. There are lots of people that are quite happy with .308 however. I don’t have any reason to knock it for ranges out to about 600 yards. Beyond that it starts running out of velocity.

  2. Ahhh…I liked the rant…it is not very often you go off like that on this blog…good to see. As I said in my posting friday I went to the range saturday. I connected with two boomers at 500 yds. It only took me 20 dang shots! After my spotter and I had a basic training course in how to communicate to each other I seemed to understand where my rounds were going. I wanted to know how you view the .308? What is your past experience with this round? None of the guys I shoot with have any experience with this round. I can’t think of any other questions right now…too tired. We had two aircraft with environmental problems…I am the smallest guy on shift so I get to crawl into the hellholes to check the ducting. 8 hours later I am bleeding, sore and extremely tired but the jets are fixed for the next days flying…I just know there is a engineer out there laughing his a** off. He is probably thinking “…thats what you get for not going to college…”. I should have listened to my parents. At that time in my life, I thought I knew best. I know I am going to get paid back for my up-bringing thru my son. Anyway…try to get some sleep and good luck on your meeting.

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