Yes, but is there any way to verify it isn’t CSI Miami investigator Horatio Caine or fictional newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane? It could even be 2012 presidential hopeful Herman Cain. I demand more instructional videos.
I love the assumption that an elderly disabled person who doesn’t know their sword is a cane is ‘no threat.’
I’m sufficiently elderly to pay senior-citizen prices, and disabled enough that I carry a cane. And if I’m lying to you about what I know about my cane, I’m quite capable of being a very serious threat with a sword in my hand.
I’m no fan of the TSA, but “security based on assuming that all my stereotypes are valid” is even stupider than the TSA.
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I think I know who the TSA is worried about.
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Great, but how do you make a rule based on that? “Deadly weapons are allowed in carry-on as long as the owner claims they didn’t know they had them”?
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Yes, in this case Cory has it wrong. The advice is simply so that people who inadvertently have cane-swords aren’t inconvenienced. It’s not about security. But the bigger question I have is who on earth (other than bloggers looking mock the TSA - and I heartily support THAT initiative) would ever actually watch these TSA information videos? How does the message get to those random people who might have cane-swords? That’s the true absurdity of the TSA’s videos.
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Nothing is going to save you from someone in the shadows stabbing you in the back, but a typical mugger is likely going to not want to kill you for your wallet and rather just tell you to give it to them.
And nope, never had to use it. I was complimented on it once by a pimp, which justified the purchase for me.
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Huh. That’s interesting, but not very practical.
That’s the part that had me scratching my head. Like probably most of their generation, my parents are not hanging out on YouTube looking for travel advice videos. Or anything else, for that matter. In fact, I’m not sure they would know what it meant if someone mentioned the phrase “YouTube” in a sentence.
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Groovy, man!!
The shillelagh was used for street fighting. In that spirit, I’d say that using it to block the knife while you kicked the legs out from underneath your attacker would probably be the best strategy for the untrained (which, honestly, includes me and probably most people in this thread). Assuming, of course, that your attacker hadn’t come from behind.
In which case, whatever weapon they have is going to be more effective than whatever weapon you have (barring absurdities like rear mounted hidden one-shot guns on your back).
Moving back to things somewhat more on-topic, it’s my understanding that most cheapo sword canes (which would be most sword canes) have a rather telling rattle. Anyone silly enough to buy a novelty weapon on purpose might not think much of it but someone who needs a cane will likely find them a bit off-putting when they try walking with it.
The ones shown in the TSA video are also ostentatiously awful enough that most people who actually need a cane would likely balk even if they weren’t a constantly rattling announcement to “look at the person using a terrible cane.”
Almost everything can be used as a weapon!
The problem which was elucidated in a very good documentary featuring a cameo by James Kirk is that a sword is just not enough when there’s something on the wiiiing, some-thing… on-the-wing!
Save lives, bring back open handgun carry to domestic air travel.
And as for flying rino-ape engine eaters, if you see something say something.
You’re supposed to be the good cop, right?
Also, eeeeeeven if I were an apologist, I don’t think this is the best they can do. Martial arts training for flight attendants, psa’s about teamwork with fellow passengers in the event of a threat, standardizing and calibrating some of the current methods of deterrence, etc. that seem to have actually made a difference (i.e. you have to fly with your luggage and die, too if you bomb it, locks on the cockpit door, x-rays of luggage and metal detectors) -all that could be done well and on a modest budget. ‘Twist and inspect’ videos the mustard they do not cut, ergo, the bad news you do not bear, potty mouth.
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But that’s irrelevant. The point is that the TSA will screen the canes – because a sword or long spike is arguably much more of a real weapon that a penknife – and will confiscate any sword canes.
Then the old people who didn’t know they had a sword cane will have their canes removed from them.
This video is to prevent that.
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