Originally Posted by
rightside02
Why are people against it . I have my own opinion on it but Curious to know peoples views on it .
1. Rank and file TSA don't need to be armed, they are screeners, not enforcers.
2. Arming them all, or even a significant fraction, would be incredibly costly because unlike FFDO's they wouldn't train for free at their own expense.
3. Once armed, they would immediately demand salaries on par with other federal LEO's. They already get lucrative pay, benefits, and union job security for what they do...no need to give them an excuse to demand even more.
4. There is a certain caliber of folks who can handle the sort of monotony thie job entails. Not that there's anything wrong with that, they have an important job that somebody needs to do. But that caliber, on average, is lower than your typical armed LEO. How many pax would have been hit at LAX if TSA had been shooting back? Bottom line, i don't think they (on average) are up to the task.
The system worked at LAX, professional LEO's took down the bad guy quickly.