Well, what do you think? I personally think that the job should be handled by the Guard, just look at their name, National GUARD. Their job is to guard the nation from its enemies, foreign and domestic. The United States is in no danger of a conventional attack or a nuclear attack, the real danger is hijackings, as proven by 9/11, let the Guard do their job and protect the nation, that's my opinion on this issue, yours?

No. The TSA should handle it.

I have voted for Other. I switched working as a teacher to working at Schiphol Airport. I see and work a lot with the airport security and found out it is a very specific task. If the National Guard wants to take over, these people have to learn a great deal of new things. Very specific laws are in place, specialised tools and skills and this is not a 1,2,3 kind of thing.
Of course they can be taught, but why make it an independ organisation? Especially with terrorist threats, cooperation is necessary. I am afraid that independent organisation will not share their information. Just look at the FBI versus CIA versus local LEA's. They tend to bite each other!

I voted "other" as well. I could copy and paste the same argument into this thread as I did in the thread about putting NG on the border. Too many tasks for the NG.

The NG is a part-time organization. People do not join the NG to be full-time soldiers and I don't believe they should have to be. To use them as airport security, we'd have to increase numbers by a huge amount, probably 100%. Only certain MOSes would be retrained to handle it. You don't need 11bravos checking folks. And you don't want to tie up your critical MOSes like EOD to check bags for explosives.

Remember that the NG already has a peacetime role, and they tend to stay pretty busy year around with all sorts of disaster relief, providing security elements, and just staying proficient at their jobs.

Security, especially what you need for airports is a very specific detail. As Ted says, when done properly, it requires a lot of specialized training. (Something the TSA has not had).

We either need to start from the ground up or clean out the TSA and refurbish it. The leadership needs to have experience. Had we sent guys to high risk airports in 2002, they would not only be trained, but experienced by now and ready to take the helm. There is alot to be learned by how some countries handle airport security.

The program needs money. Not only for training, but to offer competitive wages and benefits so we aren't attracting high school drop outs, former junkies (yep, they've hired 'em) and general slackers. A lot of this could probably be solved by simply giving what I believe are mostly average people looking for steady jobs proper leadership and training.

We also have to get out of the habit of turning every government agency like this into a bureaucracy. The TSA is just the DMV to the second power.

The TSA was created as a knee-jerk reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks. It was throw together, shirts were handed out, a quick training and orientation program thrown together and the government said "Okay, looks good."

Undercover agents, in 2004, were able to sneak explosives past security in 15 airports. That right there tells you there is a problem.

We could equip them with all of the gadgets in the James Bond toybox, and explosives would still get through. Why? Because they are inept, their training is inept and the leadership is inept.

We need a professional agency who eat, sleeps and breathes airport security and until we have that, flying is no safer today than it was pre-9/11. The only difference today is that you might have a high school drop out harass you over a steel shank in your boots or because you have a zippo lighter.

TSA. Just fix it, maybe use some older retired FBI and CIA for leaders.

<removed to protect the guilty. >

*points up*

Dude, what the heck is going on?

Originally Posted by Damien435

*points up*

Dude, what the heck is going on?

Nothing, move along, nothing to see here.

I think that the National Guard should take a more active role in defending the home front.

But also I believe that airport secuirty should fall under Local Law Enforcement. Miami Dade COunty PD already has a Airport detail. THey've been there since Miami International Airport opened. Also, Miami Dade County Fire Department has a HAZMAT and a Fire Brigade stationed there too.

Making it a federal agency will cuase more problems than it will solve. THe only role that the Feds should take using the TSA money to increase the numbers of Federal Air Marshalls and also to support the local law enforcement agencies that are working the airports.

I don't know how the funding and regulations are dealt with in the States, but aren't you afraid that you'll get all kind of different airport security agencies?
International airports in Holland (I don't know about the rest of Europe) have some judicial extra's that should be taken into account. De-centralizing the airport security makes it prone to all kinds of different rules and thus more loop-holes for "the bad guy". We use our military police to deal with airport security as a whole. The luggage check and things like that are being done by private security entreprises and that is though enough as it is...