Access Control
& Security Systems

An attack on the El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4 has prompted a call for police or military security officers armed with automatic weapons at major U.S. airports and overseas airports with U.S. ticket counters.

"There is presently nothing to prevent terrorists or unbalanced individuals from bringing automatic weapons into airports and killing dozens especially at crowded airline ticket counters," says Paul Hudson, executive director and member of the FAA Aviation Security Advisory Committee. "The July 4 LAX shootings exposed this glaring vulnerability in airport security to the entire world. At the very least, national guardsmen, police or armed private security officers are needed at the major U.S. and international airports, especially those with El Al and U.S. airline ticket counters, as we know that their passengers and workers are under terrorist and hate crime threat."

Hudson goes on to say that armed security is needed for at least three reasons: To deter would-be assailants who know that that they would not survive such an attack; to re-assure the traveling public that there actually is security against armed attacks in airports; and to minimize the loss of life in case of an attack.

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, armed National Guardsmen patrolled airports on a constant basis, but most of those security measures have been withdrawn as the threat of attack waned. Security workers at airports now are generally unarmed.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued a statement in response.

"This incident, even if isolated and regardless of motive, emphasizes that we cannot be complacent about any of the security measures that we put in place at our airports and at the other modes of transportation," the statement reads. "TSA must continually re-assess its security configuration and have our full force of both uniformed law enforcement officers and undercover criminal investigators in both the sterile and non-sterile areas of our airports and other transportation facilities. Had this event occurred at another airline counter without armed security guards, the situation unfortunately would have been worse."

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