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Tell The TSA No - Politely

We need to stop acting like scared little sheep and follow the example in this blog: "My TSA Encounter." This man was polite, but stuck to his insistance that the TSA has no legal right to require a pat down or backskatter body scan. We have constitutional protection from unreasonable search and seizure. One terrorist boards a flight overseas with an underwear bomb that didn't work, and now the TSA says that they have to grope grandma? No. Just no. Stop flying or block up the airports by politely refusing to submit, and the airlines will lose so much money that they will make the TSA back down. As a side note, it was on the news yesterday that most government officials are escorted around security, so this is really up to us.

One more thing - making the selection for extra security screening "random" is not better. The police are not allowed to randomly frisk people on the sidewalk when those people are offering no probable cause that they have done something illegal. This protection is guaranteed by the 4th amendment. Why then is it OK for the TSA to have greater powers of search than the Police? The answer is that it is not legal. They can only search if we allow them to do so. 

When the millenium bomber took a car ferry from from Canada to Washington, there was no TSA, but he got stopped. Why? When approached by a customs official and asked if he had anything to declare, he got out of his car and started running. That guy was stopped and searched and rightfully so. As it turns out, he had nitroglycerine in his back seat. If you and I walk through airport security and offer no probable cause, then we should not be treated like a criminal. I would even be happy to apply for a background check so I could be pre-screened for any latent terror sleeper cell activities. My family has been here since 1685, but we can't be too careful. Once I pass that background check, however, I never want to be screened again. To get a concealed carry permit in the state of Washington, one must be fingerprinted and then background checked, pay a reasonable fee - and that's it. You're good. Having done that, I am good to walk all over town with a loaded gun in my pocket, but I can't take shampoo on an airplane and I have to let the TSA grope my family. No. Just no.

Update: 

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