

TSA to allow some small knives in carry-on luggage - ComputerGuru
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21678267

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tokenadult
It's interesting to see flight attendants objecting to allowing even those
knives in airplane cabins. I'd like to be able to carry a pocket knife on an
airplane again. The last pocket knife I bought was actually bought (just
before 11 September 2001) to bring along with me on plane trips, which I was
never able to do on a carry-on basis. That knife was eventually confiscated a
couple years ago when I still had it in my pocket as I was about to go on a
plane trip with my son.

I remember better days of air travel, when everyone felt a lot more carefree.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5216204>

But on an issue like this, I have a lot of empathy for the flight attendants,
and might sooner advocate for keeping my shoes on in the airport rather than
again making it convenient to carry knives on board airplanes. With training,
any device that can cut a pilot's or flight attendant's carotid artery can be
used to take over a plane. Intelligence to stop the plots to take over
airplanes from happening in the first place is an essential step in defense,
but maybe leaving knives in checked baggage is another.

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jammur
I don't really see this lasting for very long. All it will take is one drunk,
out of control idiot with a pocket knife to ruin the whole thing. I think most
of us remember those two RIM employees who were so drunk they tried to chew
their way through their restraints. Now imagine if they had pocket knives...

~~~
jff
We managed for 50+ years allowing knives, lighters, etc. on flights--hell,
they used to let you smoke in-flight, and nobody started a fire (maliciously).

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phren0logy
Glad to see a step toward reason, but this seems like an interesting first
concession. How about just letting me keep my shoes on?

~~~
joonix
Yeah, if anything small knives seem like a legitimate threat given box cutters
were used on 9/11 to kill people. It's about time to allow shoes and belts to
remain on -- it doesn't make sense to take them off if you're going to force
people through naked xray scanners either.

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ben1040
According to the TSA news release, they're also allowing novelty baseball
bats.

[http://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/assets/pdf/tsa_permit...](http://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/assets/pdf/tsa_permitted_items_update.pdf)

I wonder if some Louisville politician lobbied for this change:

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/309924706/>

~~~
MartinCron
The best part of that linked document is that golf clubs are OK, but you can't
have more than two. I'm trying to imagine the scenario where you wanted to
carry golf clubs with you onto an airplane, but only had two of them. Would
you take your favorite two with you and check the rest?

~~~
ben1040
I have to imagine the more-than-two rule is at the airlines' request. With
more than two clubs, you're likely going to bring them in a full-size golf bag
and they don't want those onboard for space reasons.

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nevinera
But small containers of any kind of liquid are _right out_.

~~~
erichocean
_Especially_ a bottle with breast milk that is being actively consumed by a
baby (I still can't believe I saw this happen).

~~~
metajack
Breast milk is expressly allowed. I have personally taken breast milk through
the airport with my children by myself (I'm a man) and they didn't bat at eye
at me. Supposedly you can take it through without the child too, which makes
sense for traveling, pumping mothers.

Sometime they will test it, which involves holding a small trip of paper above
the open container. I think that happened only once to me.

They are pretty lax most times if you have children along. You can take water
through with kids (or at least I have several times), and they have always
skipped any of the extra screening and scanning when I'm with my kids. We just
walk right through the metal detector.

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Lagged2Death
_Breast milk is expressly allowed._

I see what you did there.

The TSA isn't exactly known for applying its rules (or anyone else's rules for
that matter) consistently and accurately.

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NoPiece
At least we've narrowed it down from a policy problem to a people problem. But
you are right the inconsistency is really frustrating.

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Millennium
It's about time we started showing some courage again. A keychain multitool,
one of the tiny Swiss Army knives, and the like simply are not credible
weapons. To ban them simply isn't rational, and it's time that we as a society
moved on from this trauma-by-proxy.

~~~
gte910h
The FA's point is that the 9/11 attacks were done with BOXCUTTERS.

I understand why they think these knives are still an issue, but I think the
training doctrine of "don't obey the hijackers" has changed all that.

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lucian1900
Who the fuck would object to this change? There's _nothing_ significant one
can do with such knives.

Also, how about fucking liquids?

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Bill_Dimm
_Also, how about fucking liquids?_

K-Y Jelly is fine if less than 3 ounces. If you need more than 3 ounces, well,
maybe try leaving your hotel room occasionally.

~~~
lucian1900
:)

It annoys me that several times I forgot that some particular item is
forbidden and it got confiscated. Even jam!

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sfn09sj84f
I'm still awaiting the next bomber who's stuffed a bomb up his ass, and how
airport security will follow

~~~
hollerith
Shh!

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sukuriant
Wait a second. They're allowing things other than "small knives" on the planes
again. Could it be that the other things that are allowed on planes, ski
poles, hockey sticks, etc might not be allowed it the "small blades" weren't
allowed? For example, the pointy end of a pole, or a utility part of a tool.
These things might have been disallowed by a sharp-pointy, but they're allowed
back on, and it just so happens that the regulation of what's considered an
"okay blade" and what's considered a "not-okay-blade" has to change because of
that.

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danalmeida
I was really hoping I could keep my shoes on through airport security before
they escalated to allowing knives.

