Just when we thought it was safe to fly again, after the 9/11 tragedy 12 years ago weapons are being allowed aboard planes. Knives with two-inch blades will be allowed on planes, along with baseball bats and golf clubs on April 25, unless the change is rescinded, before being put into effect.
Ironically box cutters still will not be allowed on board planes, even though knives can be used as a weapon just like box cutters, against passengers and flight attendants. TSA apparently thinks hijackers will never be able to enter the pilot’s cabin, due to safety measures put into place since 9/11. However, that doesn’t protect the passengers and flight attendants from being cut by knives and attacked by bats and golf clubs.
Former Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley says he would also allow battle axes and machetes to be carried aboard planes. How could anyone feel safe flying, while knowing that the person in the seat next to them may be a terrorist, that is carrying a knife with them.
What will the TSA personnel checking the belongings of passengers say, when they see someone who looks like a terrorist carrying weapons? The TSA could then face discrimination charges, for not allowing possible terrorists to carry these weapons, then let other passengers board the planes with the same weapons.
I have flown only twice since 9/11 and with these lax rules on weapons I may never fly again. Have we forgotten the terror those airline passengers and crews went through on September 11, 2001? They had to helplessly watch as the terrorists used the planes, for battering rams against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building. Those passengers met fiery deaths on those planes, when they exploded upon impact.
Allowing these weapons won’t speed up the check-in process at the security gates, since TSA officials will have to closely examine each knife, to see if it is two inches or less and to check the length of baseball bats, which can’t be longer than 24 inches.
Personally, I think the new rules are an invitation to disaster and that terrorists and criminals will take advantage, of the less stringent rules for bringing weapons aboard planes.
We can only hope the Transportation Security Administration thinks over the consequences, before implementing these changes and will rescind the changes before April 25.
Tiffany Hawk of CNN has filed this article with photos of what is allowed and what isn’t allowed under the new rules.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/07/opinion/hawk-tsa-knives/index.html
Nostalgia and Now 
I believe the thinking is to arm more of the passengers in case of terrorists, but it may just be an assumption that terrorists won’t try to hijack planes any more, since that’s where everyone’s focusing attention.
That makes sense, that if the passengers are armed, then a hijacker is in as much danger as the passengers, since they won’t be the only one with a knife on the plane. Thanks for bringing this up. I hadn’t even thought of that scenario.