http://www.examiner.com/article/tsa-agents-were-to-save-themselves-during-mass-shootings-passengers-shockedNovember 2, 2013
Tragedy occurred on Friday at around 9:30 a.m. when gunshots rang out inside Terminal 3 at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), killing one TSA agent and injuring six others, before the wounded gunman, Paul Anthony Ciancia, was taken into custody.
As details unfold, Andrea Shea King, host of the Andrea Shea King show sent a story to the Paulding County Republican Examiner on Friday afternoon about a report that was released by the Washington Times in January 2013, where a TSA source claims that if a mass shooting unfolded in any airport, they were to save their own lives.
Investigative journalist Alan Jones did the Washington Times investigated TSA report.
In that report, Jones found that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoint screeners are receiving training to prepare them for the possibility of a mass shooting at one of the agency’s airport checkpoints, and those TSA personnel are being instructed to “save themselves” should a shooting occur.
One TSA worker told Jones, “Every day when I arrive for work, I look for an escape route in case someone opens fire. We have been told to save ourselves.”
Jones delve into the issue that surrounded the Christmas Day 2009 “underwear bomber” incident and wondered if the Department of Homeland Security knows more about airport incidents before they occur but stays quiet about it.
Jones asked the question, “Does the TSA already have intelligence about a possible future checkpoint shooting? The events surrounding the Christmas Day 2009 “underwear bomber” incident, however, provide reason to pay close attention to the details of Homeland Security’s operations.
“It is unclear whether the alleged training is simply a prudent attempt by the agency to protect its own employees from every imaginable contingency. Fears are that the Department of Homeland Security has detected a threat and is already moving to prepare staff to either handle it or get out of the way,” Jones said.
“Considering the full range of possible reasons for the alleged TSA training, it would be hard to say whether the agency actually expects a checkpoint shooting.”
Also on Friday, Tiffany Hawk, a former flight attendant with United Airlines and Virgin America wrote an opinion on CNN on whether the TSA agents should be armed or not, thinking as liberals usually do, that gun-safe zones is the answer.
She asked the question “Is it time to start arming Transportation Security Administration officials?” Her response was, “No way.”
Hawk went on to say, “I can understand the urge to react, to grasp at anything that might protect travelers. I too want air travel to be safe; hell, my husband is a pilot. But arming screeners at checkpoints well away from the airfield wouldn't be just another of the many precautions the airlines have taken to avert large-scale terrorism. It would simply be about protecting people from something that is everywhere in America: gun violence -- yes, at airports, and also at schools, at movie theaters, and malls.”
“Do you really want to start handing out guns to the people you work with? Unquestionably, terrorism is a real concern for airlines, but like it or not, as Americans, we have also have to worry just as much about angry neighbors with guns.”
Jones’ report from January confirms that TSA agents did in fact follow their training and ran to save their own lives.
Andrea Shea King told the Paulding County Republican Examiner Saturday morning, “Several interviewees on Friday said that the TSA personnel ran past them to get out of the shooting area.”
“Passengers in the terminal were shocked when it happened. They thought the TSA was there to protect them!”
