After much hue and cry from those who equate knives with all that’s evil and wrong with the world, the Transportation Security Administration has backed off from its plan to allow small carry-on knives on commercial flights.
Knives will continue to be allowed in checked luggage.
The goofball wording that also would have allowed bats, golf clubs, hockey sticks, pool cues, ski poles and lacrosse sticks probably didn’t help the original ruling that would have allowed knives.
A big reason it failed, though, was due to such anti-knife zealots as Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, as well as 145 House members signing a letter to TSA Administrator John Pistole to keep the current rules in place. Also, flight attendant union protests and airline officials’ opposition played a part, too.
Meanwhile, more anti-knife mania reared its ugly head in the form of a Homeland Security spending bill that would block the TSA from spending money to implement the change. That bill is still in the works and is expected to pass.
While some, such as Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, reversed their opposition to the change after hearing Pistole’s arguments, it wasn’t enough to hold off the anti-knife circus.
For more, stay tuned to www.blademag.com and BLADE® Magazine.
