It is unclear whether the TSA is conducting this training at airports around the nation or only at the airport where the source, a veteran of the agency, is assigned.

Expressing fear bordering on extreme distress, the TSA source claims that his life, along with the lives of other unarmed TSA personnel, would be in grave danger were an airport checkpoint shooting to unfold.  

The TSA screener, who claims to have recently undergone agency training during which TSA personnel were confronted with a chilling checkpoint shooting scenario, now tries to remain aware of how to get out alive were such a shooting to unfold.

“Every day when I arrive for work, I look for an escape route in case someone opens fire,” he said. “We have been told to save ourselves."

This raises the question of whether this training is a prudent measure by the agency to protect its own employees from every imaginable contingency, or whether it is an indication that the Department of Homeland Security has detected a threat.

Considering the full range of possible reasons for the alleged TSA training, it is hard to guess whether the TSA, tasked with protecting the travelling public, or its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, actually expects a checkpoint shooting.

The “Underwear Bomber” attack: was the U.S. government involved?

The events surrounding the Christmas Day 2009 “underwear bomber” attack, however, provide reasons to pay close attention to every detail of the Department of Homeland Security’s operations.

Shortly after the “underwear bomber” attack onboard Northwest Airlines flight 253, an Airbus A330 approaching Detroit from Amsterdam, Michigan Attorney Kurt Haskell approached the FBI and later the media with information suggesting that the U.S. Government knew that 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a threat to air safety.

Kurt Haskell, a 2012 Democratic Congressional candidate who lost to incumbent Tim Walberg (R-MI), testified in federal court during a Victim Impact Statement that while he and his wife Lori waited to board the flight at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, he witnessed a well-dressed man help get the bomber onboard without a passport.

Haskell is convinced that “a federal agent gave Abdulmutallab a defective bomb to carry onto the plane to create an incident that would cause the government to install full body scanners at airports nationwide,” according to USA Today.

"Regardless of how media and government try to shape this case, I am convinced that Umar was given an intentionally defective bomb by a U.S. agent.”

Haskell’s account of watching a man “who appeared to be of Indian descent, was dressed in what looked like an expensive suit and shoes” convince airline agents in Amsterdam to allow Abdulmutallab onboard the plane without a passport, was originally reported in the Detroit News.

"The TSA will train their people to ‘save themselves’ and not try to save passengers, telling them it is for their own safety," Haskell says from his Michigan office. "The real reason is to make sure they don’t see anything and aren’t eyewitnesses. The supposed shooter will die, maybe commit “suicide”, but not really, as it is a play.  No one will really be hurt."

Patrick F. Kennedy, Undersecretary of State for Management, told the House Committee on Homeland Security on January 27, 2010, that Abdulmutallab’s visa was not revoked by the State Department due to a national security override from within the intelligence and law enforcement community related to a larger al-Qaeda investigation.

The name of the agency was not publicly disclosed during the hearing.

While in France, President Obama authorized the use of an autopen to sign into law the extension of three key components of the USA PATRIOT Act on May 26, 2011.

Were another major shooting to unfold in the midst of congressional debate over additional gun control legislation, such as Diane Feinstein’s proposed assault weapons ban, the ensuing crisis could sway wavering members of Congress to support the new gun restrictions.

The TSA employee who disclosed the existence of the checkpoint shooting training, when asked whether it was possible that TSA personnel were being set up for a staged checkpoint shooting, responded “I hope the government wouldn’t do something like that”.

TSA screeners, unlike airport police officers, do not carry firearms and they are not sworn law enforcement officers. The primary mission of the TSA is to identify possible threats to commercial aircraft and the passengers travelling on them, detaining and reporting the person or threat. They are not trained to engage, arrest, or perform the duties of police or military personnel. 

The role of the TSA checkpoint is to separate airport “sterile” areas in close proximity to aircraft, where only ticketed passengers, airport workers and airline crews are permitted, from “nonsterile” areas accessible to all members of the general public. Nonsterile areas typically include airline ticketing and car rental counters, baggage claim belts, and passenger pick-up and drop-off zones.  

TSA screeners at the checkpoints look for weapons, explosives, and suspicious travelers who could present a threat to an aircraft, but like everyone else at airports around the country, they count on airport police for armed protection should an incident arise.

Airport police officers, often under the supervision of a city or county law enforcement agency within the municipality where the airport is located, provide armed protection at large airports, and have full powers to detain and arrest individuals.   

Airport police officers are usually graduates from a police academy, where, as cadets, they undergo firearms training.

TSA “officers” wear badges and law enforcement style uniforms, but only receive about 80 hours of new-hire training which does not include crisis or firearm training. Last June, the House of Representatives voted 131-282 against an amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Bill that would have blocked DHS from spending money on official-looking uniforms.

Arming TSA checkpoint workers, who are not sworn law enforcement officers, would likely elicit backlash from a segment of the travelling public and members of Congress that view current TSA screening procedures as overly invasive. 

As Americans grow increasingly fatigued by their experiences at TSA checkpoints, there have been calls from some quarters to scale back or eliminate the agency altogether.  

A mass shooting at a TSA checkpoint would not only be a tragedy for the families of those passengers and TSA workers killed, but would likely lead to even more calls for gun control measures, as well as discussions of arming TSA workers, both propositions that would face stiff resistance.

Some airports allow concealed weapons outside sterile areas protected by TSA

According to an Associated Press survey reported on by CBS News in 2009, seven of the twenty busiest airports in the United States allow individuals with gun permits to carry firearms in general public areas, which are separated from secure terminals and aircraft gate areas by the TSA checkpoints.  

The Aurora movie theater massacre, the Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings, and the Virginia Tech massacre all transpired within buildings where firearms were prohibited, lending weight to the argument that banning guns from public buildings does not prevent gun violence, and may actually invite it by virtually guaranteeing targeted victims are unarmed.

Although the only recent shooting in a U.S. airport, the 2002 terror attack at Los Angeles International Airport by an Egyptian gunman at the Israeli El Al Airlines ticket counter, occurred in an airport that according to the AP survey allows concealed weapons in non-sterile areas outside the TSA checkpoint, it is noted that two people were killed before armed El Al security quickly killed the gunman, a relatively low number of fatalities compared with recent massacres in gun-restricted zones.

In the wake of Aurora and Sandy Hook shootings, airport shooting would likely further transform air travel in America and lead to additional calls for gun control

The September 11, 2001 attacks profoundly changed air travel within the United States through the creation of the TSA, and the Christmas Day 2009 “underwear bomber” attack over Detroit increased the tempo of TSA’s checkpoint operations, with the agency deploying controversial “naked body scanners,” which are currently being removed from airports and replaced with millimeter-wave scanners.

A mass shooting at a TSA checkpoint would further change the air travel experience for everyone. Such an event would carry heavy weight during Congressional, state, and local arguments over gun restrictions, which are already tense following the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Using children as a stage backdrop, President Obama last week issued 23 executive orders designed to further restrict the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, President Bush requested that state governors post National Guard troops armed with automatic weapons inside airport terminals nationwide, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a police state.  

An emergency request to place National Guard troops inside airports could be revisited by President Obama in the aftermath of a mass-casualty shooting at a U.S. airport.

Maine National Guardsmen patrol the Portland International Jetport, Friday, Oct. 5, 2001. President Bush asked governors to increase airport security following the September 11, 2001 attacks. (AP)

“Stay right where you are”: TSA freeze drill performed last year in Phoenix

A previously unheard of TSA “all-stop” airport freeze drill became widely known after a video of a drill being conducted at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport emerged on YouTube in September, 2012. During the drill, passengers were ordered to “stay right where you are” after passing through the checkpoint.

On October 1, 2012, Arizona radio station KTAR quoted regional TSA spokesman Nico Melendez saying, “they use ‘all-stop drills’ to help prepare employees for a security breach ... They're called in case something happens at the checkpoint where we need to have everyone stop to be able to identify a problem or an issue”.

Because TSA checkpoint workers have no authority to detain people, however, it appears that passengers would not have actually been required to “freeze” unless ordered to do so by law enforcement.

Shooting at Los Angeles International Airport in 2002

The prospect of a mass shooting at an airport, where many people are being moved through crowded qeues, is chilling. The El Al incident at LAX resulted in two deaths before armed security killed the lone Egyptian gunman. 

The FBI determined that the LAX shooter acted alone and was not connected to any terrorist group. In April 2003, however, CNN reported that the FBI and the Department of Justice agreed with a previous federal determination that the LAX airport shooting “fit the definition of terrorism.”

It is important to remember that mass shootings like Aurora or Newtown, while terrifying, are not acts of "terrorism" as we generally define the word.

But if a shooter attacks a TSA checkpoint, do you want TSA agents who are trained to duck, cover and run to be all that stands between you and the gunman?