12 JAN 2017: The horrendous CCTV video of Esteban Santiago calmly pulling a gun from his belt and randomly opening fire on the innocent people strolling along next to him, somehow seems to have resonated more than most acts of equally unfathomable violence in recent years.

Maybe it’s because the everyday travel scene is so familiar to us all – people of all ages casually dragging their wheelies behind them or standing by carousels waiting for their bags. Additionally for many of us the baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale Airport is familiar territory: I for one was there just a couple of months ago.  But it could easily have been any airport anywhere and it could have happened to any one of us. That chilling realization is what’s so terrifying.

In many ways it’s amazing that something like this hasn’t happened before now. The shooter, Santiago, had actually complied with all the firearm security rules and placed his gun and ammunition in his checked baggage. But when he collected it on arrival, headed to a washroom, loaded up and come out ready to shoot and the security compliance was suddenly all for naught.

Inevitably there has already been an outcry about changing the rules to better protect fliers, but short of banning all firearms, even in checked bags, there is very little middle ground. It would be terribly unfair to penalizing the 99.99999% of gun-carrying fliers who are a threat to nobody except a few ducks and the occasional moose. Hunters coming into Canada represent over a billion dollars a year in tourist revenue, so banning their guns from airplanes might not be the most popular idea!

Needless to say US lawmakers will need to get their sound bites in. Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for example stated, “We need to review not only the question of whether people should be able to travel with their firearms even if they’re in checked baggage, but I think we need to take a hard look at the security around train stations, port terminals, and baggage claim areas. I’m going to be addressing that when I go back to Washington.”

A much more frightening possibility is emerging within Florida however where, before the FLL incident, State lawmakers were already working on what they see as a possible solution to such acts of gun violence – more guns!

Current Florida law prevents people with ‘concealed-carry’ permits from bringing their firearms into meetings of legislators, schools, colleges, courtrooms, bars, and – you guessed it – airport terminals.

But, under a bill filed by state Congressman Jake Raburn, airport spaces like baggage claim – that are outside of the sterile area guarded by metal detectors – would be cleared for concealed gun carrying. Addressing the five shooting deaths at FLL, Raburn commented, “I do personally feel like had this bill been in place already, there could have been the potential for people to protect themselves in that situation.”

Incredibly, Florida State Senator Greg Steube has gone a step further and filed a bill that would not only allow concealed-carry permit holders to openly carry their weapons in airport terminals, but also in government meetings, schools and colleges. You read it right – it would allow gun owners to carry their firearms openly.

Unbelievably, they seriously seem intent on introducing the Wild West to airport terminals.

Take a moment to look at that shooting video again and see how many of the other passengers there look like they could have whipped out a gun and defended themselves. If however there had been others armed and willing to play vigilante, the chances would seem very real of even more casualties from those getting caught in the crossfire.

Fortunately however, there is a voice of reason. Scott Israel, Broward County’s Sheriff, (the Wild West always has to have a sheriff), who’s responsible for security at FLL’s terminals, strongly disapproves of Steube and Raburn’s ideas. After the FLL shootings he stated, “I’m opposed to it, just as I am opposed to open carry in schools. It makes us less safe, as it would hinder law enforcement by legally allowing potential active shooters to openly carry their deadly weapons right into airports to carry out their heinous attacks.”

In case you’re wondering where the Feds stand on this issue, well it seems that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has no official position on the carrying of firearms in the public, unsecured areas of an airport: A TSA spokesman confirmed it was not within their purview.

It is within Sheriff Israel’s purview however and as he stated, “When you have a person that could be suffering from a severe mental illness, or you have what we call a ‘lone wolf assassin’ that’s ready to conduct some cowardly, heinous act, there’s not much law enforcement or anybody else can do about it.”