Exempting crewmembers from the same screening forced upon mere mortals (paying customers/passengers) is lunacy, and this incident clearly demonstrates why. Same with the other incidents where crewmembers took weapons or other prohibited items onboard.

It's not a sterile area if large numbers of people are exempt.

Background checks, fingerprints and decades of lawful behaviour prove nothing about the propensity of a person to bring weapons into the sterile area. Or worse, act as unknowing mules.

If the screening techniques are too invasive, too inconvenient or too time consuming, the answer is to change those techniques for everyone at the airport, not give flight attendants free passes.