LAX shooting: Some TSA agents should be armed, union says

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Los Angeles Airport Police Department Officer Fritz Corros stands in silence as an honor guard at the makeshift memorial to fallen TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Transportation Security Administration employees observe a moment of silence on Friday at 9:20 a.m., the same time of last Friday’s shooting that left TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez dead. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Airport police Officer Fritz Corros stands in silence as an honor guard at the makeshift memorial to fallen TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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TSA employees embrace after observing a moment of silence at LAX. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Airport workers embrace in Terminal 3 after a memorial service for a slain TSA officer. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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A shoulder patch is among the items at the makeshift memorial for slain TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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LAX Airport Police officer Tom Dye passes the U.S. Honor Flag to TSA honor guard Brandy Richards as it arrives at LAX in memory of TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez on Wednesday. The Honor Flag will be used at Hernandez’s upcoming funeral services. (Brad Graverson / Getty Images)

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Honor guards escort a U.S. National Honor Flag from an airline jet in a ceremony to memorialize TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was fatally shot at LAX. (David McNew / Getty Images)

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The U.S. Honor Flag is carried during a procession through Terminal 4 at LAX in memory of TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez. (Brad Graverson / Getty Images)

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A motorcade, consisting of members of the L.A. Police Department, L.A. Fire Department, and honor guards with the Transportation Security Administration, carries a U.S. National Honor Flag in memory of TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A TSA officer wipes her eyes as an honor guard escorts a U.S. National Honor Flag in a ceremony to memorialize TSA Officer Gerardo Hernandez, who was fatally shot at LAX. (David McNew / Getty Images)

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TSA agents Blandina Beltran,left, and Wessane Legesse, right, comfort each other at a candlelight vigil for their co-worker slain TSA agent Gerardo I. Hernandez at Dockweiler State Beach on November 4, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Beltran and Legesse both work in Terminal 3 at LAX. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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TSA shooting victim Tony Grigsby is consoled by his mother, Faye Maye, during a news conference Monday n Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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TSA shooting victim Tony Grigsby, escorted by his mother, Faye Maye, left, and grandmother Juanita Davis, walks slowly away from the media after a press conference Monday in Los Angeles. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Passengers continue through the screening area in LAX Terminal Three on Monday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Transportation Security Administration agents help travelers with baggage to check for screening at LAX Terminal Two on Monday morning after a deadly shooting Friday at Terminal Three caused mass delays and cancellations. A Transportation Security Administration agent was killed and several other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in the Los Angeles International Airport terminal Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Transportation Security Administration agents embrace in front of Terminal 3 at LAX on Monday. Three days after a fellow agent was killed and several others wounded. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Transportation Security Administration agents help travelers with their luggage. Suspect Paul Anthony Ciancia’s family family notified Los Angeles police Friday morning after receiving text messages from the 23-year-old that made them concerned about his well-being. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Passengers and Transportation Security Administration walk past a memorial of flowers at LAX on Monday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Flowers for slain TSA agent Gerardo Hernandez at LAX Terminal 3. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Airport Police Officer Dan Keehne and his canine partner keep an eye on passengers in Terminal 3. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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TSA officers are in very somber mood at the Terminal 3 check-in area. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Ana Hernandez, widow of slain TSA officer Gerardo I. Hernandez, makes a statement Saturday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Airport police Officer Dan Keehne patrols Terminal 3 with his canine partner. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Travelers wait to check in as construction workers take down tarp that prevented people from looking at the crime scene. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles airport staff members attend to a passenger who was trying get in through a closed entrance at Terminal 3. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Airport police patrol with dogs in Terminal 3 a day after the shooting. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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TSA agents spend a quiet moment on a bridge that leads to Terminal 3. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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A TSA agent is absorbed in thought as he walks through Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. (Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)

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Law enforcement including the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department and LAX Airport Police gather in Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. A Transportation Security Administration agent was killed and several other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire at the airport. The attack caused widespread chaos, delaying flights and stranding thousands of passengers. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Liza Espiritu, right, rests on her luggage while joining hundreds of passengers who wait to get permission to try to make their flights. Espiritu and her husbvand, Eric, standing behind her, were traveling from Manila with a stop at LAX en route to Phoenix. (Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)

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After hours of waiting, passengers are allowed to enter LAX. They were held at the entrance to the arrival section of LAX. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Travelers make their toward LAX on one of the main roads into the airport. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

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Joseph Heyward, 87, right, and his wife get help with their luggage and a ride from Los Angeles firefighters. (Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)

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Passengers wait outside Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 1, 2013, after a Transportation Security Administration agent was shot and killed and three other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck talks with other responders at Los Angeles International Airport. (Reed Saxon / Associated Press)

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The attack at LAX caused widespread chaos at the airport, with flights delayed and thousand of passengers left stranded on the streets in and around the airport. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Security presence outside Terminal 2 at LAX after a Transportation Security Administration agent was shot and several other people were wounded when a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3 Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Passengers wait outside Terminal 1 at LAX. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Passengers and airline personnel exit LAX after a Transportation Security Administration agent was shot and killed. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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Passengers wait for Terminal 1 to reopen after a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport on Friday. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

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A passenger trundles his bag behind him outside LAX, where thousands of people were evacuated after a gunman opened fire in Terminal 3. (Michael Nelson / EPA)

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A police offer stretches crime scene tape across the road leading to Terminal 3 after Friday morning’s shooting. (Michael Nelson / EPA)

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Police stand guard outside Terminal 2 at Los Angeles International Airport. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

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Passengers evacuated from LAX terminals walk with their luggage after a gunman opened fire inside Terminal 3. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

By Kate Linthicum and Kate Mather

Nov. 4, 2013 1:07 PM PT

The president of the union representing more than 45,000 Transportation Security Administration agents urged Congress and the agency on Monday to create a new class of officers that would be armed with weapons.

J. David Cox Sr., president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 45,000 Transportation Security Administration agents, said that the “sad truth is that our TSA officers are subject to daily verbal assaults and far too frequent physical attacks while performing their security duties.”

“At this time, we feel a larger and more consistent armed presence in screening areas would be a positive step in improving security for both TSOs and the flying public,” Cox said in a statement. “The development of a new class of TSA officers with law enforcement status would be a logical approach to accomplishing this goal.”

The statement comes in the aftermath of Friday’s shooting at LAX that left one TSA agent killed and two others injured. The suspect in the shooting, 23-year-old Paul Ciancia, was targeting federal security officers, authorities said.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters Monday that the investigation into the shooting will also look at security at LAX -- and other airports.

“The function of TSA is to ensure that people can board planes safely and take flights safely,” Holder said. “The responsibility for protecting airport security is not a TSA function, but something I think we need to certainly examine.”

At a news conference over the weekend, TSA Administrator John Pistole said his agency’s review will include the question of whether its agents should be armed (they are not presently). “We will look at what our policies and procedures are and what provides the best possible security,” he said.
The idea of arming TSA agents has been raised before, according to aviation security consultant Stewart Verdery, a former Department of Homeland Security official who was involved with the creation of the airport screening agency.

“It’s always been raised as an issue,” Verdery said. “We know that there are people that don’t like the government, and TSA is a whipping boy for people angry about the overreach of the government. And we also know that terrorists are fascinated with aviation. It puts them on the front lines.”

He said the decision not to arm airport security agents was made because protecting the airport is not their primary mission.

“You want to spend your time training TSA officers to look for dangerous weapons and dangerous people,” he said. “Arming tens of thousands of agents who are largely dealing with average travelers is not necessary.”

He noted that arming the agents would come at a high cost. The average annual cost of a TSA agent is less than half the cost of an armed law enforcement officer, he said.

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Twitter: @katemather | @katelinthicum

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