Steve Chapman on the Folly of Arming TSA Agents

Last week, a
man with a rifle shot three Transportation Security Administration
agents at Los Angeles International Airport, killing one. This
episode evoked the same response as every other aviation attack:
the impulse to devise a quick solution. The union representing TSA
employees urged that at least some security screeners be armed—a
request administrator John Pistole promised to consider. The
driving assumption is that you can never be too careful. But you
can, of course. Training TSA agents to carry firearms would cost
money, invite terrorists to locate their massacres elsewhere in the
terminal, and not necessarily save a single life. Besides, points
out Steve Chapman, equipping screeners with deadly weapons would
also heighten the sense of coercion and intrusion that makes air
travel resemble admission to a medium-security prison.

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