There's a huge misperception here. Some of it comes, I believe, from how screeners handle pocketknives, scissors and other minor prohibited items and the assumption that major items such as firearms, grenades, IEDs, etc are handled the same way. There's another erroneous assumption that passengers are allowed possession of their items before a screener searches it.

Whenever the x-ray operator detects a prohibited item, the operator will generally notify another screener to search the bag to locate and remove the item. However, if it is an obvious threat such as a pistol, grenade, IED, etc., then the x-ray operator takes a different course of action, and no screener is placed in a situation where he or she has to handle a handgun as alleged in the article. Could be that there have been some incidents in certain airports where this may have occurred. If so, then those screeners weren't following correct procedures and the problem is not with TSA policy but with compliance of written policy. Big difference.

Taken to an extreme, there is one major vulnerability which, in its final analysis, is a moot point and not a reflection on TSA as it is on the whole concept of airport security as a whole. If a group of terrorists were to simply storm a terminal such as what was done in the 70's in Europe, then there is absolutely nothing that could be done to prevent that other than to respond once events begin to unfold. Arming TSA screeners with weapons is certainly not a viable option. Flooding airports with armed troops has been tried but wasn't very practical nor cost effective. This scenario is still a realistic one, but not one to the point where we need to station troops at each and every terminal in anticipation of an armed attack. Taking this scenario one step further, why stop at just an airport? This same horrifying scenario applies to a sports event, shopping mall or Fourth of July street parade. So where do we draw the line? The brutal reality is that we have very little choice but to artificially draw the line somewhere between what we can prepare to counter and what we hope may never happen. At airport security checkpoints, the assumption is that someone will try to smuggle a weapon through security rather than just storm the terminal and kill as many innocents as possible.