Life is a set of compromises - they've won if you yield all power to the terrorists and live in mortal fear.

Pretty much everyone from my generation has some tale(s) to tell - my first exposure to such things was having an Army guard complete with sub-machine gun on the school bus, followed closely by being engulfed in a full blown riot in the family car, and continuing through a couple of events during the IRA era whose background I don't care to explain.

Do I feel totally safe in aircraft today? No, because the security will never be perfect, though the risk remains smaller than that of controlled flight into terrain.

Would the risk increase enormously if we reduced some of the checks to make life easier for travellers? Probably not.