College student raises security issue

By Mark Schulman
Assistant Editor

Guilford college student, Nathaniel Heatwole, smuggled box cutters onto two Southwestern airliners and brought the American people into an uproar over the lapse in our nation’s security against terrorism. Terrorism is doing its job intimidating and making Americans irate over the insecurities of airport employees.

The government already pours 10 percent of its homeland security budget into airline safety, according to The National Journal’s Technology Daily. What about the other forms of transportation the country should be aware of that could fall victim to terrorism attacks like subways and seaports?

A major subway would make a great place to attack a large mass of people without much effort. On any given day in major cities tens of thousands of commuters migrate into an intricate maze of wind tunnels where any toxic gas could travel from one area to another in a short amount of time. The responsibility of the city to counterattack terrorism is much greater than the lack of federal funding that is provided for them by the government in training and equipment for emergency responders such as policemen and firemen.

Our commercial seaports receive over 90percent of imported goods where only half of the shipment gets inspected. Council on Foreign Relations of homeland security member, Stephen Flynn stated that, “We have virtually no security [in our seaports].” There are 361 ports in America and they need $4.4 billion to provide the smallest amount of security.

The result of Heatwole’s actions would give the government a good reason to fund more money into airline safety. Unfortunately, other forms of transportation vulnerable to terrorist attacks will not see the funding they need.