Since 9/11, the US Congress passed the so-called "Patriot Act" which, supposedly, is making us all "safer".
Among the many provisions of the "Patriot Act" is a new requirement that all truck drivers who transport "hazardous materials"
undergo fingerprinting and an FBI background check, as if 9/11 was carried out by truck drivers or trucks or "hazardous materials" unless passenger jets are deemed "hazardous materials" which are routinely hauled around by truck drivers in their trucks.
Included in the category of "hazardous materials" is fuel, chemicals and household items such as flourescent light bulbs, batteries, drain cleaner, hair spray, smoke detectors, paint and so forth. Included under the umbrella of "hazardous materials" are many kinds of waste items such as used oil and paint filters, empty aerosol cans, used electronics of every description, used x-ray film and so forth. In other words, your local Walmart or Krogers is chuck full of "hazardous materials" as is your home.
More than 99% of truck drivers who transport "hazardous materials" transport only these benign household items. A very few drivers, less than 1%, actually haul the things that could be turned into WMDs like the fuel and poisons.
Conspicuously absent from the "hazardous materials" that only those drivers who have been screened and fingerprinted may transport is weapons and ammunition!
It seems that there is great angst in Congress about the transportation of light bulbs and hair spray by bad guys, but no concern whatever that those same bad guys may haul guns and ammunition with impunity.
What do you make of that?
There is something rotten in the USA.
Thank you for your thoughtful answers.
Among the many provisions of the "Patriot Act" is a new requirement that all truck drivers who transport "hazardous materials"
undergo fingerprinting and an FBI background check, as if 9/11 was carried out by truck drivers or trucks or "hazardous materials" unless passenger jets are deemed "hazardous materials" which are routinely hauled around by truck drivers in their trucks.
Included in the category of "hazardous materials" is fuel, chemicals and household items such as flourescent light bulbs, batteries, drain cleaner, hair spray, smoke detectors, paint and so forth. Included under the umbrella of "hazardous materials" are many kinds of waste items such as used oil and paint filters, empty aerosol cans, used electronics of every description, used x-ray film and so forth. In other words, your local Walmart or Krogers is chuck full of "hazardous materials" as is your home.
More than 99% of truck drivers who transport "hazardous materials" transport only these benign household items. A very few drivers, less than 1%, actually haul the things that could be turned into WMDs like the fuel and poisons.
Conspicuously absent from the "hazardous materials" that only those drivers who have been screened and fingerprinted may transport is weapons and ammunition!
It seems that there is great angst in Congress about the transportation of light bulbs and hair spray by bad guys, but no concern whatever that those same bad guys may haul guns and ammunition with impunity.
What do you make of that?
There is something rotten in the USA.
Thank you for your thoughtful answers.