TSA is useless, except for keeping people scared.

[Deep13]

43. None of the 9/11 hijackers would have been stopped by today's TSA.

The hijackers were exactly who they said they were. They carried sharp things that were legal to carry on the plane. Frankly, they were essentially unarmed. There have been zero successful shoe bombers and the ONE attempt was foiled by alert passengers and crew, not making people take their shoes off. There have been no successful underwear bombers and the one try was again foiled by observant people on the plane. Here's a question, if we now have those enormously expensive full-body scanners, why do we still need to remove our shoes?

I know first hand that the following countries to not use full-body scans or require people to be undressed or to throw out liquids (where did THAT come from?): United Kingdom, Jordan, Egypt, France, Germany, Lebanon. The UK had the IRA and Lebanon has Hezbollah within their borders, and they don't make people get undressed.

post script:
I feel like I need to state the obvious and say that none of this means I sympathize with the gunman.