Thread: TSA Law change: Blades on a plane

Below is an excerpt from this article.

Alas I am but a lowly patent guy and will leave it to the pros. Any ambitious litigators out there want to take up this cause? It affirmatively says that "razor blades" will continue to be banned, but that seems to align more with, say, DE razor blades in that they resemble utility knife blades.

I bet a 2.4 inch 4/8 razor could fall under this "pocket knife" exception as it functionally isn't much different. In fact, I would argue that a traditional straight razor is less effective as a weapon than a pocket knife of the same blade dimensions. Thoughts?

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will let people carry small pocketknives onto passenger planes for the first time since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, along with golf clubs, hockey sticks and plastic Wiffle Ball-style bats.
"The agency will permit knives with retractable blades shorter than 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) and narrower than 1/2 inch at the widest point, TSA Administrator John Pistole said today at an aviation security conference in Brooklyn. The change, to conform with international rules, will take effect April 25.
Pistole, the former No. 2 official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has stressed the use of intelligence and “risk- based” security during his tenure leading TSA. The agency is moving away from uniform procedures that apply to every passenger and toward efforts to perform background checks on passengers before they arrive at an airport.
Overseas passengers will no longer have to check the qualifying knives as they pass through the U.S. The agency will still prohibit some knives, including those with locking blades or molded handles, Pistole said. Box cutters, like those used by the Sept. 11 terrorists, and razor blades will still be banned.
The agency will relax its prohibited-item list in other ways, Pistole said. Passengers will be allowed to carry on sticks used to play lacrosse, billiards and hockey, ski poles and as many as two golf clubs, he said."

I am waiting to see how "molded" handles is defined by some s.a. TSA agent. Those SAK's with the red "molded" plastic handles look like they fit in that catagory.

I think a billiard cue or a golf club would be a far better weapon than a box cutter.

One of the 9-11 guys began the hijacking by reaching over the seat and cutting the throat of the passenger in front of him. He used some sort of blade described in the news as a box cutter. I guess he wanted to get everyone's attention so they would no this was no joke.

I think they would be better served if they stopped having 70 year old ladies removing their shoes and continued the ban on any type of blade. YMMV.

I wouldn't weight in on this, other than to say anything they do will be criticized and ridiculed....and possibly be the subject of conspiracy claims.

Bad people will generally figure out ways to wreck the fun for good people.

I agree with unit on this one.

If someone wants to kill someone or many people and don't care what happens to them they will generally find away to do so.

The TSA is mainly there to give people a false sense of safety. So no matter what they do they lose in the press.

Silly. Once you start to cut throats of people who can't really defend themselves, a 2 inch blade will cut just as well as a box cutter.

It will actually cut better, carry a roll of athletic tape, tape the razor open, then tape it to your cutting hand, takes about 10 - 15 seconds.