Why were liberal airports so lax on security during nine eleven?

What makes you think they didn't find it. At the time, it was legal to bring box cutters onto airplanes. Even if they found it, they would have allowed it onto the plane -- because that was allowed then.

maybe cause they never thought something like that would happen

What is a "liberal airport"?

The fact is that prior to 9/11 the country didn't take this stuff seriously. Terrorism was a background threat. The first World Trade Center attack back in the 1990s should have been a wake up call, but it wasn't. Terrorists typically weren't very organized, imaginative, or successful.

Airplane hijackings in particular were more on an inconvenience than anything. Where there were outliers like the Lockerbie bombing, most airplane hijackings were for the purpose of creating a negotiation. They often demanded the release of previously caught members of their cell, or perhaps use the plane to get out of the country. Passengers and crew were taught to comply and cooperate with the hijackers since almost every previous incident resulted in hostages being released unharmed. Likewise, security at airports was pretty lax. The priority was on passenger throughput, not security.

Unfortunately, what we have today is the worst of all possible worlds. The government takeover of TSA was a complete failure. Mock infiltrations succeed at staggeringly high rates. What the TSA does would be better described as "security theater" than security. It's meant to inconvenience you JUST ENOUGH that you think you're safe, and therefore don't complain to your congressman about how unsafe things are, yet not SO MUCH that you complain to your congressman about how inconvenient the TSA is.

We should re-privatize airport security, but conduct mock infiltrations from the NTSB and FAA, with failures resulting in GIGANTIC fines. The fines would be so large that every airport and every airline would want to have the best security possible. That's the only way you're going to see real progress.

I know for a fact that thirty years before 9/11/01 only ticketed passengers were allowed out to the gates at EWR, JFK and LGA

And those passengers had to go through TSA type security

The real question is, why is security so tight now when they'll almost certainly use anything BUT an airplane next time. People fly in from countries whose airports have weaker security than we had BEFORE 9/11. Dozens of planes with thousands of passengers every day.

Maybe we should hand every passenger a gun so they can stop the bad guys with a gun.

/S

Why does your liberal cat vomit all over your shoes? Because you are too dumb to put them somewhere where the cat can’t get at them.

Box cutters used to be allowed, along with laptops, small knives, and large bottles of shampoo

I know, but pre 9-11, you could bring razor blades on board

the terrorists have won