It's been touched on before about "feeling safe" rather than actually "being safe". Safety is, generally, an illusion and most people simply don't have the knowledge (or care to gain even a 101 entry education on the subject) to make informed opinions about safety, security or firearms.
I think education is key to removing the ignorance on these very important subjects, after all security and safety are something that a person should be thinking about (at least on a subconscious level) all the time. With over 500 million firearms in the US and tens of millions of licenses to carry weapons currently issued in all 50 states and 13 states where no license is needed to carry concealed at all, having a basic knowledge of firearms and laws is something everyone should have.
I'm going to quote the next post as an overview example, not to single out any particular poster, I just want to point out that peoples ignorance (dictionary definition meaning lack of knowledge) on the law can give them a total false sense of "security". There are dozens of similar posts over the past couple dozen pages, I'm simply picking the easiest anyone can double check if they so desire.
This poster is completely unaware that a person can check an unlimited amount (upto what a bag will hold and any extra baggage or weight fees over 50#) of firearms into their checked luggage. They are unaware they can check an unlimited amount of magazines and accessories into their check luggage. They also are unaware a person can check up to 11
pounds of ammunition into their checked luggage as well.
This of course doesn't count the opportunity for 'contraband' to be added to any bags between coming off the conveyor belt (unsterile area of airport) and before the bus driver gets it. It also doesn't count the fact that TSA has a failure rate of 80% (down from 95% 4 years ago)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/tsa-fails-tests-latest-undercover-operation-us-airports/story?id=51022188 .
So under the above scenario a potential madman loads up a couple of rifles and/or handguns,and a couple dozen magazines into their checked luggage and 11 pounds of ammo (they could go over by a few pounds, I've never seen them weight it separately from the total bag weight) , declare it to SouthWest at the check-in desk and hops on the plane. Gets off in Orlando and the bus driver personally gets the luggage off of the belt and loads it into the bus, it's off to Contemporary where the bellhop delivers it up to the 10th floor TPV room and the potential madman doesn't even have to break a sweat carrying anything up to his room.
Yet they "feel" safer. Generally speaking the most dangerous things are things we don't know that we don't know. Hopefully this was educational.
Since we're on the subject, let's also say Disney was checking every private car that came onto property as also suggested.
Joe Citizen pulls up and Disney employee starts the inspection-
DE- "Ok, lets see in your center console"
JC- "Sure" and he opens it.
DE- "Ah I see you have a Glock 17 with 3 spare magazines fully loaded."
JC- "Yep"
DE- "You're leaving it in the car or checking it in at the Port Orleans desk right?"
JC- "Yep."
DE- "Ok have a magical day!"
*with the exception of a handful of "secure" facilities like Prisons and Nuclear power plants, a business is prevented by law from preventing a person from having a firearm in their vehicle in Florida (and most states).
Again, "feel" safe.
I do hope this can open some eyes to the futility of notions that merely involve feeling safe vs having any true impact on actually preventing an unthinkable incident. These "peek checks" are thoroughly useless and needless hassles, if they are actually meant for some sort of security effort.
