Originally Posted by bambi47
This was in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, page A9. Banned items intercepted by airport screeners, January 1 - Nov. 29, 2005: Lighters (banned as of April14) 8,124,525, Sharp Objects 3,041,218, Knives and blades 1,650,894 (less than 3 inches 1,599,103) (3 inches or longer 51,791), Tools, 819,450, Flammables and irritants 362,613 (not sure if they included irritating passengers), Ammunition and gunpowder 21,939, Box cutters 19,499, Clubs, bats and bludgeons 19,183. Just wondering where all this stuff came from. People that don't believe their dangerous? People that don't know the rules? (come on, its been 4 years and unless you haven't read a paper or watched television, this is a lame excuse) or people that think we should "know" their not terrorists? Or were at least a couple of them "bad guys" that wanted to harm us?
It makes perfect sense to me.
Eight out of every 10 people on a plane, on average, are NOT frequent fliers.
And those folks are the TSA's target audience in terms of contraband and public perception. It's THOSE uneducated people who fly once or twice a year are who the TSA thrives on, the ones they cater to when they point out how "valuable" the TSA is.
On the other hand, about eight out of every 10 frequent fliers feel the TSA is unnecessary.