6 ms·

Maybe I'm just not in the right areas of the airport, but I can never recollect seeing anyone armed beyond a small pistol in the airport. Which airport was thi

Maybe I'm just not in the right areas of the airport, but I can never recollect seeing anyone armed beyond a small pistol in the airport. Which airport was this?

bdunbar 15y ago
I have not seen any myself recently - I'm an infrequent air traveler. But for up to six months after 9/11 there were a lot of National Guard guys hanging around, with M16s. Knowing how government work it would not surprise me at all to read that each airport now has TSA officers with SWAT training and they have all kinds of weaponry stashed in a locker somewhere.
- phxrsng 15y ago
  Most if not all TSA officers are not sworn officers, I believe. If you notice at airport security checkpoints, no TSA agents have weapons, a few actual police officers stationed there do.
  - saryant 15y ago
    Right, TSA agents aren't law enforcement.
  - bdunbar 15y ago
    Point taken. Give it a few years, they will be.
- mikeash 15y ago
  My recollection is that, at least initially, the Guardsmen stationed in airports after 9/11 were issued guns but no ammunition. Not sure whether it was due to red tape or what, but that certainly illustrates the US approach to "security" quite nicely.
  - bdunbar 15y ago
    I think I remember the 'no ammo' thing. Less an institutional approach to security, more an example of institutional panic. The NG is fine with passing out guns - they probably break them out one weekend a month and dust them off.[1] But passing out ammo - that's a serious step. Some officers freak the heck out when they think about troops having actual live bullets in their magazines. In the 1980s era Marines, on barracks duty, I actually rolled out to a for-real no-kidding 'we're being shot at' incident with a rifle, a radio, a flashlight and no ammunition. The reasons _why_ are complicated (and this isn't the place for a sea story) but it boils down to 'the troops weren't trusted with bullets - they might shoot someone'. [1] I understand this has changed, for the better, since 9/11. Now they break them out and _clean_ them on drill weekend.
haasted 15y ago
I haven't seen this in a US airport either. I DID see something similar in a British one, though. Soldiers (not guards or police) patrolling the terminal with (to my eyes) very large guns. They also seemed to be in "spread out"-formation, keeping their distance from each other. A measure I would have thought was reserved where more caution was needed, e.g. street patrolling in a war-zone. A rather unnerving sight, actually.
Duff 15y ago
I haven't seen them in an airport lately, but National Guard soldiers are in Penn Station in NYC. They are armed with pistols, and spend most of their time flirting. If they are doing a drill or the threat level goes up, they are armed with rifles, and the cops have sub-machine guns. Fortunately, they are unloaded, so you're less likely to have an incident where they start shooting at some deranged homeless guy. Being deafened by some idiot shooting a rifle down there would suck.
mc32 15y ago
I haven't seen them since the immediate weeks after 9/11. But I did see them in Frankfurt and CDG _before_ 9/11. So in some countries it's quite routine to have (para)military personnel guarding airports. In the Us it seems to be the exception. I haven't seen any recently.
- olex 15y ago
  Yes, in Frankfurt it's fairly routine. The security is pretty high, and it gets even tenser at times, when some radical group announces threats and such. It's not only the airport, though; I've seen policemen with MP5s at the Frankfurt train station and once on the main shopping street in the city center, too.
saryant 15y ago
Agreed, I've never seen that in the US. I have seen it at train stations in France though. That was a bit surprising my first time there.
- davidw 15y ago
  Well before 9/11, I recall going through security at Frankfurt with a large German guy, his mean looking dog, and an automatic weapon of some kind. He was also the only person in the place that didn't seem to have a very thorough grasp of English.
- Timshel 15y ago
  Yes there is essentially since 1995 bombing I believe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Paris_Metro_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Paris_Metro_bombing). To be a bit more precise : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigipirate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigipirate.
ditojim 15y ago
I've seen ICE agents with machine guns in Miami International Airport.
hesselink 15y ago
I've seen people armed with machine guns at Miami, but that was about a year after 9/11, I think.
gclaramunt 15y ago
I admit it was a special time, but I explicitly recall Miami airport, Nov 2001: heavily armed soldiers (machine guns) in the airport and a humvee with a huge flag in the parking.

Maybe I'm just not in the right areas of the airport, but I can never recollect seeing anyone armed beyond a small pistol in the airport. Which airport was this?

bdunbar 15y ago

I have not seen any myself recently - I'm an infrequent air traveler. But for up to six months after 9/11 there were a lot of National Guard guys hanging around, with M16s. Knowing how government work it would not surprise me at all to read that each airport now has TSA officers with SWAT training and they have all kinds of weaponry stashed in a locker somewhere.

phxrsng 15y ago
Most if not all TSA officers are not sworn officers, I believe. If you notice at airport security checkpoints, no TSA agents have weapons, a few actual police officers stationed there do.
- saryant 15y ago
  Right, TSA agents aren't law enforcement.
- bdunbar 15y ago
  Point taken. Give it a few years, they will be.
mikeash 15y ago
My recollection is that, at least initially, the Guardsmen stationed in airports after 9/11 were issued guns but no ammunition. Not sure whether it was due to red tape or what, but that certainly illustrates the US approach to "security" quite nicely.
- bdunbar 15y ago
  I think I remember the 'no ammo' thing. Less an institutional approach to security, more an example of institutional panic. The NG is fine with passing out guns - they probably break them out one weekend a month and dust them off.[1] But passing out ammo - that's a serious step. Some officers freak the heck out when they think about troops having actual live bullets in their magazines. In the 1980s era Marines, on barracks duty, I actually rolled out to a for-real no-kidding 'we're being shot at' incident with a rifle, a radio, a flashlight and no ammunition. The reasons _why_ are complicated (and this isn't the place for a sea story) but it boils down to 'the troops weren't trusted with bullets - they might shoot someone'. [1] I understand this has changed, for the better, since 9/11. Now they break them out and _clean_ them on drill weekend.

haasted 15y ago

I haven't seen this in a US airport either. I DID see something similar in a British one, though. Soldiers (not guards or police) patrolling the terminal with (to my eyes) very large guns. They also seemed to be in "spread out"-formation, keeping their distance from each other. A measure I would have thought was reserved where more caution was needed, e.g. street patrolling in a war-zone. A rather unnerving sight, actually.

Duff 15y ago

I haven't seen them in an airport lately, but National Guard soldiers are in Penn Station in NYC. They are armed with pistols, and spend most of their time flirting. If they are doing a drill or the threat level goes up, they are armed with rifles, and the cops have sub-machine guns. Fortunately, they are unloaded, so you're less likely to have an incident where they start shooting at some deranged homeless guy. Being deafened by some idiot shooting a rifle down there would suck.

mc32 15y ago

I haven't seen them since the immediate weeks after 9/11. But I did see them in Frankfurt and CDG _before_ 9/11. So in some countries it's quite routine to have (para)military personnel guarding airports. In the Us it seems to be the exception. I haven't seen any recently.

olex 15y ago
Yes, in Frankfurt it's fairly routine. The security is pretty high, and it gets even tenser at times, when some radical group announces threats and such. It's not only the airport, though; I've seen policemen with MP5s at the Frankfurt train station and once on the main shopping street in the city center, too.

saryant 15y ago

Agreed, I've never seen that in the US. I have seen it at train stations in France though. That was a bit surprising my first time there.

davidw 15y ago
Well before 9/11, I recall going through security at Frankfurt with a large German guy, his mean looking dog, and an automatic weapon of some kind. He was also the only person in the place that didn't seem to have a very thorough grasp of English.
Timshel 15y ago
Yes there is essentially since 1995 bombing I believe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Paris_Metro_bombing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Paris_Metro_bombing). To be a bit more precise : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigipirate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigipirate.

ditojim 15y ago

I've seen ICE agents with machine guns in Miami International Airport.

hesselink 15y ago

I've seen people armed with machine guns at Miami, but that was about a year after 9/11, I think.

gclaramunt 15y ago

I admit it was a special time, but I explicitly recall Miami airport, Nov 2001: heavily armed soldiers (machine guns) in the airport and a humvee with a huge flag in the parking.