Editorial: Knives on planes? Not here

When the Transportation Security Administration introduced a plan to let airline passengers carry small knives, souvenir bats and golf clubs onto planes in March, one of its reasons for the laxer rules was the fact that the TSA confiscates more than 2,000 small knives daily. Not surprisingly, Americans saw that as a reason to keep checking for them, not a justification to stop. The TSA's argument that by not screening for these items it could increase its focus on sniffing out explosives and other more serious threats was met with incredulity and outrage. That's not surprising, considering that the planes hijacked on 9/11 were taken over by men carrying box cutters. Last week the TSA announced that the old restrictions on knives and all the rest would stay in place. That's the proper answer in a controversy that should never have come up at all.