Where were you then? In the USA you and visiting guests HAD to go through a security checkpoint and scan your carry-on for firearms and walk though a metal detector since the 1970s.
OK, I didn’t remember correctly and I apologize. Everybody had to walk through a magnetometer of some sort when entering the concourse, but anybody could freely pass through. My wife and kids often were waiting for me at the gate when I returned from a business trip in the 90s.
I also had only a fuzzy memory of being a kid and accompanying my dad’s cousin to the gate itself when she flew back to England via JFK back in the 1970s and ‘80s. But then recently rewatching the films High Anxiety (1976) and This is Spinal Tap (1984), there were airport metal detector gags, so there definitely was a process in place.
Uh oh. I sense an “any reasonable person argument.”
What is the way to demarcate “weapons” from “tools that could be used as a weapon”? A Swiss army knife has a lot of uses, and hurting someone is not an intended one, nor what most people buy it for. But many things you can do with it, from sharpening a pencil to peeling a potato, you can also do with a switchblade, albeit, people buy a switchblade usually have “hurting someone” in mind when they buy it.
Do airports have to keep long lists of sharp objects, and whether or not they are intended to cause harm? or is it simply whether they can? the problem with the latter is that some people can hurt you badly with a nail file, while others couldn’t even inflict a flesh wound with a switchblade.
Heck, I know someone who could probably kick another person to death if he had on work boots. Is he only allowed to fly in deck shoes?
Dont get the idea I am saying Swiss Army knives should be allowed. I was replying to this-
So, I can see draconian punishments for a firearm, but not for a 2” knife. If you have a small knife, either give it up or send it home. But no other punishments.
And remember, the USA system of airport security is nearly worldwide. Yes Israel has a different system, but most of thw world operates in way similar to the USA
This is why Vampire straws are not allowed at the airport. People will do pretty much anything to arm themselves.
Plus this scene from Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989) which always made me laugh:
There have been metal detectors as long as I can remember, and I was born in 1967. I remember when anyone could go to the gate and wait with you, and when sometimes instead of using a terminal, you just walked out onto the tarmac, and up stairs to board the plane.
They had metal detectors everywhere, looking pretty much alike. The Soviet Aeroflot had them in 1977.
Wait, I take that back-- I do remember when there were little commuter airports that flew small planes with maybe only 8 passenger seats and NO RESTROOM (!!! 
), piloted by a single person, which took less than an hour to get anywhere-- less than half an hour, sometimes.
They might do a cursory search of your luggage, or make you open your coat if you had a coat that was long, or heavy, but there wasn’t much you could do if you hijacked one of those planes. Divert an Indianapolis flight to Champaign-Urbana?
You couldn’t bring much luggage, so the worst you might be doing is smuggling on a very small scale. And a lot of the passengers were probably regulars.
Anyway, places like those didn’t have metal detectors.
Nonetheless, all the one I knew of (3) closed after 9/11.
I remember (1985-ish) the airport in Savannah, GA, had a display of all the dangerous items they had confiscated: daggers, hunting knives, switchblades, butterfly knives, zipguns, handguns, and … a pair of knitting needles. I liked to imagine security getting someone’s granny in a half-nelson.
How much of a black market is there for small scales?
Having your knitting needles taken really fucked up the piece you were working on. My mother’s were taken on her way to my wedding.
They were on the forbidden list for a while after 2001.
So were nail clippers, and I usually have those in my carry-on luggage.
Airport metal detectors were first used in 1970, but Jan 1973 they were mandated.
Average citizens used to be able to carry loaded weapons on them. It was a madhouse!
But, if you had some gremlin-monster on the wing, damaging the engine, at least you could shoot it.
I’ve had to carry scissors with me for medical reasons and always make sure they are the rounded tips.
The only place that security took a closer look was at the Copenhagen airport in Denmark where they actually measured the length.
Since that happened I carry a pair of rounded, folding scissors.
I carry scissors also, and they’re the blunt-tip kind meant for small children to use. I’ve been doing so for several years and haven’t had any issue with that.
I just had a Robin Williams flashback. RW granny voice: What, do they think I’m going to knit an afgan?
A set of 16” metal knitting needles are pretty dangerous, But they now allow most knitting needles, but metal ones could be confiscated.
Memory is funny. I used to fly pretty regularly for work. I was the “last minute” guy, pulling an “OJ” running to the gate. I often would bring a bottle of gin with me, or buy one while out of town and bring the unused portion home. I recall gate agents checking to see if the seal was broken and, if it was, uncap it and sniff it, but no problem bringing it on board.
I’m sure there were metal detectors - I just don’t remember them.
They put in metal detectors after a lot of people started hijacking airplanes to Cuba in the 1960’s. Before 9/11, there was no check of ID’s or tickets. You just went through the detector on the way to the gate to see someone off or to meet them. The 9/11 hijackers got through with box cutters.