Security theater. You gotta love it. ‘Cause I don’t. Then again, I’m still smarting from the time Heathrow security discovered a live – LIVE! – .22 cartridge at the bottom of my carry-on. “You are aware that we consider this part of gun?” the H&K MP5-wielding police demanded. “Is that a trick question?” I replied. They were not amused. And here’s the thing: the cartridge made it through security in Boston onto the plane. What are the odds? Pretty high I’d say, as I wasn’t even trying. Anyone who thinks current airport security protocols prevent terrorist attacks (on disarmed passengers) is dangerously deluded. But don’t take my word for it . . .

A TSA agent blamed for letting one man carrying a loaded handgun and another with a flip knife board Phoenix-to-London flights on the same day last month is out of a job, FoxNews.com has learned. Both passengers flew the more than 10 hour flights to London with the weapons in their carry-on bags, sources told FoxNews.com. Neither passenger tried to use the weapons while aboard the flights, though the shocking security lapse raises obvious questions about whether passengers with bad intentions might slip through security. Both weapons were found by security officials at London’s Heathrow Airport as they attempted to transfer onto connecting flights. In the more serious of the two June 22 incidents, William Joseph Richardson was going through transfer screening at Heathrow Airport to board a British Airways flight to Paris when airport security discovered his loaded Glock handgun, according to a document reviewed by FoxNews.com. London Special Police responded, confiscated the firearm and ammunition and detained Richardson, 34, for further investigation. Checks with two law enforcement databases revealed that Richardson has a criminal record, according to the document. Seven hours later, British airport security discovered the knife on another passenger going through transfer screening to board a British Airways flight. That passenger had arrived on a different flight from Phoenix and had traveled with a 3.9-inch flip knife, which London Aviation Police confiscated, the document said . . . A TSA official with knowledge of the incident said the agent responsible for the breach is no longer employed by the agency.

Again; one TSA official was responsible for both breaches. And we have to assume it wasn’t an Islamic plot of some kind (otherwise he would have been jailed not dismissed). With the TSA screening 1.8m passengers a day, I’ve got to think that the screener “responsible” for the lapse isn’t the only one asleep at the switch. How could he be?

Oh wait; click here for another story of a GLOCK that made it aboard a commercial flight. “To be fair to screeners, it’s very difficult work,” Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told ABC News. “After so many hours of seeing things that are innocuous, there’s really a limit for the human brain to process something anomalous.”

The 9/11 attacks proved that terrorists are pretty capable, clever people. By relying on a set-in-stone predictable process to screen passengers, by prohibiting profiling, airplane security is not as secure as Uncle Sam would have you believe (in order to agree to the invasion of your personal space). Like I said, it’s security theater.