# Shooting at LAX Terminal 3 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2013, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858 "2013-11-01T17:24:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858/41 "2013-11-03T01:04:39Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Why can’t Glocks be easily detected? > [@Loach](#): > > It’s a joke. In Die Hard 2 a plot point was a ceramic Glock that couldn’t be detected by airport security. It doesn’t exist but many thought it did. I actually just learned that! I was really making a [totally](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=694374) [unrelated](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695533) [pun](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695512) on previous thread titles. Now I wish I had made that Glock thread way back when cause it totally woulda worked :mad: 😃 Shows that something good can come from making stupid jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858/42 "2013-11-03T01:39:41Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > …it’s not an automatic, it’s a semi-automatic… That’s not a nitpick, that is an important distinction about both the capabilities and legality of the weapon. If you don’t think the distinction matters, don’t bring it up. > [@](#): > > …that’s not a actual AR-15, it’s a cheap knockoff, AR-15 is a registered trademark of Colt"… No, it’s, “That’s not an AR-15, it’s a shotgun.” You should _care_ when the media lies to you to try to advance a political argument meant to undermine your constitutional rights. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858/43 "2013-11-03T02:43:29Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > And it’s always interesting to see the gun nerds go all anal retentive on the reports. “They called it a clip, but it’s a magazine, they called it a bullet, but it’s a cartridge, it’s not an automatic, it’s a semi-automatic, it’s a casing, not a shell, that’s not a actual AR-15, it’s a cheap knockoff, AR-15 is a registered trademark of Colt”. In my head, I always read this in the comic book guy’s voice. It’s like some cross between the NRA and a Star Trek convention. I never saw such a bunch of people hung up over minutia. And as I’ve said in other threads, guns seems to be the only subject in which posters here revel in their ignorance. It’s hardly rocket science. Why be willfully ignorant on a subject you have strong opinions on? > [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > If only TSA had some “good guys with guns” … TSA generally does not have guns. Maybe some unit does. Gate agents in my local airport don’t. Armed policing comes from the Port Authority Police. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858/44 "2013-11-03T14:55:22Z")
The thing is, TSA baggage/passenger _screening agents_ are \*\*not \*\*intended to be an armed defense force. They replaced the equally unarmed private rent-a-cop contractors that used to do carry-on screening, because there was an outcry after 9/11 to take that function and “federalize” it. Armed force was and remained the job of [Air]Ports Police and Air Marshals. According to [reports in the _LA Times_](http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-1103-lax-security-20131103,4954514,3863115,full.story#axzz2jVTwOiFm): > [@](#): > > Marshall McClain, a veteran airport policeman and president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Assn., said that earlier this year, armed police officers were shifted from their fixed assignments at TSA checkpoints to patrolling inside and outside passenger terminals. > > The **fixed positioning of the officers was a product of post-9/11 concerns** that terrorists could breach checkpoints and reach passenger gates and parked aircraft. > > McClain said patrolling officers were not at or near the TSA screening area when Friday’s attack occurred. But he added that it’s not clear whether having a police officer at the site could have prevented the shooting. > […] > He noted that the gunman who attacked the El Al Israel Airlines ticket counter at the Tom Bradley International Terminal on July 4, 2002, waited until uniformed police officers had left the area. > […] > But [Jenkins] agreed that it is hard to say whether they could have stopped Friday’s attack. The gunman, Jenkins said, could have killed an officer before moving past the checkpoint and into the terminal. > […] > Gannon defended his decision to reassign armed officers away from the TSA checkpoints, saying police need to modify their procedures to avoid becoming predictable. > > **The greatest threats to airport terminals are between the curbs on the street and passenger screening areas, he said,** adding that more officers were needed to address those risks. > > Police patrols in the terminals are responsible for the lobbies, ticket counters, concession areas, gates and sidewalks, as well as nonpublic areas such as baggage handling areas and ramps (bolding mine) And in fact this gunman first struck in the “open” area of the airport, just at the beginning of the security line. There is a valid policy question whether the most efficient use of finite police resources is to have them just standing there at the checkpoint as armed backup for TSA or if it’s better to have them patrolling the area, especially the general-access spaces outside the “sterile zone”. And that’s a lot of ground to cover. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858/45 "2013-11-03T16:29:17Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > You’re right that it can’t be detected by the TSA. But then, neither could an Abrams. An Abrams would never get past the ticketing agent. It exceeds the allowable size for carry-on luggage. You have to check it. And the weight penalty cost is prohibitive. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858/46 "2013-11-16T05:55:45Z")
Unfortunately, the TSA agent who died was lying on the floor for 33 minutes before receiving medical attention–so it’s possible his life could have been saved. [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201\_162-57612645/lapd-probing-reports-wounded-tsa-officer-waited-33-minutes-for-aid/](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57612645/lapd-probing-reports-wounded-tsa-officer-waited-33-minutes-for-aid/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shooting-at-lax-terminal-3/672858.md?page=2)