SCISSORS ON AIRPLANES….The Washington Post reports that TSA is considering new rules that would allow passengers to carry small knives and scissors on board airplanes. This sounds fine to me, and TSA’s reasoning also sounds fine: they want screeners to spend less time searching for scissors and more time looking for explosives, and hardened cockpit doors prevent terrorists from taking over an airplane with small knives anyway.
Still, even though I recognize that reasonable people can disagree about this, surely this assessment from Corey Caldwell, spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, is a wee bit over the top:
When weapons are allowed back on board an aircraft, the pilots will be able to land the plane safety but the aisles will be running with blood.
Well, no, they won’t. Without the possibility of hijacking the airplane, there’s not much point in threatening passengers, is there? And in a post-9/11 world, a pair of scissors or a small knife really won’t get you very far anyway.
Let’s leave the histrionic fearmongering to local new anchors, where it belongs, shall we?
