EDITORIAL




There are many things that can be considered as scary these days, but the scariest of these to me is the recent rules being made about travelling in the United States.


The Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) recent announcement is that knives with blades that are 2.36 inches (6 centimeters) or shorter and less than a 1/2 inch wide will be
allowed in airline cabins as long as the blade is not fixed or does not lock into place. However, razor blades and box cutters are still prohibited. The rules also allow passengers to carry two golf clubs, toy bats or other sports sticks — such as ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks and pool cues — aboard in carry-on luggage. This new rule is proposed to go into effect on the 25th of April, 2013.


This new rule has been a big topic of debate in the past few weeks. Many people have different views of this recent development. Most people think that this new rule is "completely unnecessary" and "makes no sense". In order to justify this action, John Pistole, the TSA chief, said the changes will bring the United States into alignment with international rules and are in keeping with a "risk-based security" approach that will allow screeners to focus on items such as liquid explosives and improvised bombs that pose a greater threat to aircraft (CNN). Pistole feels that this system will help keep the security process tighter.


Ironically, despite the reasons stated by the chief of the TSA, the general public believe that instead of easing screening for the passengers, the new rule will create chaos at checking points, a lot of luggage jam, too many people at the checking points, long queues. Also some say the rule adds unnecessary threat to the safety of airline crews and passengers. These new law will encourage some terrorists or people that have ulterior motive. Veda Shook, president of the Association of Flight Attendants said that rather than freeing up time, the security officers will get more bogged down testing and measuring the knives to see if they meet the criteria (CNN). According to Delta Air Lines' CEO Richard Anderson said in a letter to the TSA that the move would add little value in terms of passenger screening efficiency "in relation to the additional risk for our cabin staff and customers"(CNN).


Confused, many people are unsure of this new rule and are doing everything in their power to prevent this from taking effect. Sen. Charles Schumer called on Sunday for the TSA to reverse the rule change. "These items are dangerous, and have not become less so in the years since they were banned from planes," the New York Democrat said (CNN). Also, The Flight Attendants Union Coalition, representing nearly 90,000 flight attendants, and the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), which represents 22,000 airline pilots, also oppose the rule change. More than 20,000 people had signed a petition to White House calling on the TSA to keep knives off of planes. Not only people in power are fighting against this rule, normal passengers too are against it. (CNN)


Personally, I believe that decision should be nullified. I have a phobia for planes; I don't like to fly. This is because despite the fact that air transportation is the fastest means of travelling, it has been proven to be the most dangerous. It has the most fatal accidents of all the other means of transportation. Therefore, if anything goes wrong, there is little or no chance of survival for everyone. Adding to this fear is the most recent addition to this rule that battle axes and machetes should also be allowed on board. This will just make passengers very scared, sitting next to another passenger with a battle axe. You can't trust anybody, because you don't know if they are dangerous or not. One doesn't know if the person sitting next to them is a terrorist or if he wants to harm them with these equipments or not. This new rule affects the United States in general, because frightened, Americans are afraid to fly on these planes, which may slow down transportation. If this lasts long, the airlines may run down, because of high rate of scared travelers.


In a nut shell, I think this new rule is definitely not a god idea, and should be cancelled and not let to take effect, because risk is not necessarily measured by the item (size, length, etc) whether it is a gun or a knife, it is measured by the person holding it (CNN).