Yup I'm embarrassed at our airport security which is only designed to hassle the law abiding fliers and would do absolutely nothing to thwart a would be bad guy from storming the airport and shooting up the place. As we saw a few years back in Ft. Lauderdale.
Here we have some hulking 400lb guy standing in the XRay door bottle necking the line, barking out commands to dehumanize the fliers. "Remove your belts, shoes, and wallets" Like we're on our way to Auschwitz. It's repugnant and disgusting. If I were a bad guy, He would be the first guy shot, then that bad guy would have no imediate pushback as he would continue to empty at least three clips before Cops from other terminals would make it there. It's just a dog and Pony show.
In Japan, Peru and Malaysia you can get through the terminal pretty easy, no body cavity searches, you don't have to take off your belt and shoes, and they don't pop you in the Microwave for extra crispness.
What they do have is every wall has armed guards with automatic weapons and a clear unobstructed view of the whole terminal. They would get a drop on a guy with a gun the minute he pulled it out. It's a bit intimidating, there's at least 6 guys with Machine guns in every terminal.
American airport security isn't intimidating to bad guys, it's only inconvenient for the Travelers.
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