... but we have already seen examples of people who did as soon as some crazy tried to blow himself up on a plane.

The point is, it used to be possible for 2 or 3 people to take charge of a plane because everyone on it assumed it was the responsibility of the crew to handle it. Active involvement of the passengers was discouraged. Today, those 2 or 3 people have to assume there are at least a half dozen on the plane who will attack them if they try to take over a plane.

About the large group thing. The larger the group, and the more they are trained, the more likely that they have been noticed. My earlier point was to put our resources into more of the intelligence and better information flow. Remember that the recent cargo situation was known, and we had the father of that guy reporting his own son. Let's get more of that.

I live in a free society. Airport security checks as they exist today don't match my idea of what that means. It is much closer in concept to the types of activities you expect from authorities in a totalitarian society. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't want to have to tell stories to my grandchildren about how it used to be possible to travel all across our great country without presenting identification. Airport security checks are just one step to that hell.

Let's find a better way to be safe on a plane without giving away our essence.