Opposition Seems to be Building to the TSA's Proposed Relaxation of Its Security Rules to Permit Pocket Knives to be Carried Aboard Airplanes

Both the union of flight attendants, and the union of federal air marshals, seem to be waging a powerful campaign against the TSA's proposed weakening of its security regulations to permit pocket knives to be carried aboard airplanes.  It was recently pointed out by the president of the flight attendants' union that the September 11 hijackers took control of aircraft with box cutters having blades smaller than the pocket knives that the T.S.A. would now permit.  Whether or not those pocket knives could now enable future hijackers to break through the doors of the airplanes' cockits, they could apparently cause severe injury to the attendants and passengers against whom they are used.

I find that argument compelling, and am puzzled as to why the TSA has proposed such revisions to its regulations.  The claim that the new rules would bring us into sync with European regulations seems unconvincing; the Europeans' record of aviation safety--the ease with which they allowed the "shoe-bomber" and the "underwear bomber" onto planes--does not inspire confidence.

I plan to mail my own opposition to the new rules to the TSA, and feel that readers of this blog might want their own views to be known.