quote:The Stealth Hawk from Busse Combat Knives is a unique professional knife developed for police, military, and SCUBA applications where detectability, magnetism, conductivity, or spark generation might prove detrimental to the mission. It weighs only 3 ounces, and is invisible to metal detectors.
So, what are we to do? Full body cavity searches?
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
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posted
If I recall correctly, there's a type of gun in existence that's made out of ceramic components. It apparently doesn't show up on metal detectors, either. I wish I could remember more about that. I learned of it from a conversation I had with one of the campus police sergeants one very boring night.
The only way to completely be safe would be strip search and conduct full body-cavity searches on each and every passenger. In addition, every piece of luggage would need to be removed from the suitcase with larger items being disassembled to prod the insides (if I recall a Discovery Channel documentary correctly, Pam Am 103 was brought down by plastic explosions hidden in a plastic radio). These same practices would have to be extended to include everyone going on any plane for any reason (pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, caterers, captain's cabana boy, etc).
In short, it's an impossible goal to attain until we develop the super-sensors and -scanners of Star Trek fame. No matter the best intentions and efforts of those charged with providing and maintaining security for air flights, something is going to slip through.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
posted
The ceramic gun isn't publicly available. Only intelligence agencies have 'em.
It's kinda like gun control. You can't possibly eliminate all guns, so your best bet is to have MORE guns: in this case, ones in the hands of your trained security people. Of course, a really smart terrorist would try the TV cliche of designing a bomb that only goes off when his heart stops, but we're probably dealing with low-calibur weapons, and one shot to the head probably wouldn't kill...
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"