Yes, armed robbery. They are taking harmless personal possessions from passengers under threat of force (in this case, governmental force). Most places I'm aware of, the threat of force in instances like this qualifies as armed robbery. When a private individual does something like this, most people refer to it as a "mugging". When the state does it, it tends to be called "confiscation". It's still armed robbery. Just because it's performed by agents of the government instead of a freelance thug doesn't make it right.
Should I have said, "The State", would that make it clearer? We're referring to FEDERAL organizations here, they work for the state. Not, say, the state of Virginia - just "The State".
No, it's not. Hassling passengers for bringing their hand lotion, nail clippers, and bottles of water onto an aircraft is
WRONG. 
Abiding by these stupid, counterproductive, and insane regulations only makes things worse.
You would be incorrect, thanks in large part to a year or more of lurking here prior to my first post, and to being someone concerned about organizations, like TSA, which exist solely to infringe upon civil liberties in "the holy name of 'security'." Their regulations
DO NOTHING TO HELP ENSURE THE SAFETY OF PASSENGERS AND AIRCRAFT. Worse, they distract people who MIGHT be able to help ensure said safety by having them search for bottled water and hand lotion instead of bombs or some other
VALID threat. What's TSA's success rate against their own Red Team, again? During ANNOUNCED testing periods?
Because it would cost a lot, and they don't REALLY believe it's a threat - but they can't back off from their power trip. I can see no other possible "justification" for it. They themselves acknowledge that these items are not a threat, by the way they are handled after confiscation, but there is no possibility that passengers be permitted to keep said personal items.
Because items which are not a threat, and which are confiscated under threat of force, are
STOLEN. It's ILLEGAL to benefit from the sale of stolen property. If it's a threat, it gets handled as hazmat (for things like liquids and gels, etc.) and EVERYTHING gets DESTROYED. Allowing the government to treat them as safe items and SELL them encourages them to continue this unethical behavior.
It certainly is. Why do you SUPPORT it?!?