Stupid regulations

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 8, 2001]

If Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta, Czar Norman, thinks that a ban on plastic forks and spoons, toothbrushes, ballpoint pens, razor blades, eyeglass lens, glass utensils and even fingernail clippers is impractical, and body cavity searches a bit too intrusive, a substitute would be to order that passengers be handcuffed to their seats during flights save for necessary bodily functions, and then escorted to the lavatory.

Being knowledgeable about World War II, I can suggest another way to deal with hijacking threats. Say there are a thousand planes flying from the East Coast to western destinations. Just have them take off, group up in a formation and then have squadrons of F-15s provide escort. If one plane deviates from the flight plan without permission, one of the F-15s could force it to land or shoot it down.

By now you should realize the potential for ridiculous air-safety measures. Also, you should realize that some mandates (such as banning knives) won't improve air travel safety by one iota. The reason why is that terrorists will never use knives to hijack an airplane again. The reason why knives were successful this time was that passengers thought that the hijacking simply meant that they'd wind up in Cuba or some other destination. If they knew that the hijackers were going to take them all to their death, knives wouldn't have stopped them from trying to subdue the hijackers.

The new air safety regulations are consistent with today's anti-crime strategies: If people commit crimes with guns, call for gun control; if people commit crimes with knives, call for knife control. Current law prohibits pilots from having guns to protect their crew and passengers. That law should be changed.

Instead of meekly going along with the FAA's new, costly, oppressive and stupid safety regulations, Americans should rebel against them. Are we so timid and feminized that we'll accept anything politicians do in the name of safety?

-- Walter Williams, syndicated columnist and Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA (Creators Syndicate).

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