I opt out every time that I fly, and I always request a public screening, because I want people to see me being patted down. It's amazing how many people still aren't aware that they have the option. I've talked to a few folks in line about it, and even convinced one guy to opt out after me. Set an example and be obvious about it.
Funny story - on my last flight, the patdown resulted in an alert for some banned residue on my clothing, so the TSA took me aside to a private cubicle, re-ran the patdown, came up clean, and then left me to pack my stuff up and go on my way. In this cubicle with me were two 5-gallon buckets filled with confiscated lighters and pocket knives. Someone thought it was a good idea to leave me to re-pack my luggage unsupervised in a room full of contraband with no additional security checks. I didn't take anything or do anything untoward, and I wanted to point it out to the agent who'd patted me down, but I'm sure that would have just flagged me as suspicious and I would get to expend extra time being thoroughly searched. If that doesn't tell you how hilariously bad security is, I'm not sure what will.
A couple years ago, my dad flew on the 5th of July. As he was getting screened, he commented that they must be getting a lot of false-positives that day. The agent replied that they didn't check for those kinds of explosives...
Before 9/11, all plane hijackings in America were a matter of a hostage scenario with some money. The safe thing was to let the hijackers do their thing.
Now that we know that the hijackers maybe be terrorists who want to use the plane as a weapon-- the American people will resist.
Flight 93 hijackers had box cutters. I'd be happy to go toe-to-toe against a guy with a box cutter.
"the American people will resist" Some will, some won't, some will follow a leader. People tackled hijackers before 911 and people have tackled hijackers since 911.
you have to admit the status-quo has changed with regards to public understanding of how to deal with "terrorists have taken over my airplane." before 9/11 it was a scary affair but basically was reduced to the same equation as a mugging: let them do what they want, it will all be over soon, it's not worth being a hero over. not the case anymore, quite the opposite.
Funny story - on my last flight, the patdown resulted in an alert for some banned residue on my clothing, so the TSA took me aside to a private cubicle, re-ran the patdown, came up clean, and then left me to pack my stuff up and go on my way. In this cubicle with me were two 5-gallon buckets filled with confiscated lighters and pocket knives. Someone thought it was a good idea to leave me to re-pack my luggage unsupervised in a room full of contraband with no additional security checks. I didn't take anything or do anything untoward, and I wanted to point it out to the agent who'd patted me down, but I'm sure that would have just flagged me as suspicious and I would get to expend extra time being thoroughly searched. If that doesn't tell you how hilariously bad security is, I'm not sure what will.