Officials at BWI Airport stopped an AU student at a security checkpoint and warned him that the matchbooks and lighters he had in his carry-on bag would not be allowed through checkpoints in the future.
Kevin Gilnack, a junior in the School of Public Affairs and a smoker, said he did not see the lighter as a big threat, but he would follow the new policy.
"The biggest inconvenience would be not being able to smoke before your flight," Gilnack said.
Warnings about lighters on flights will be issued until April 14, when the Transportation Security Administration institutes a formal ban. The ban prevents passengers on commercial airlines from carrying lighters past security checkpoints at airports. Passengers who have lighters on them will be asked to discard them or ship them home.
The ban is an extension of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, mandated by Congress and signed by President Bush on Dec. 17, 2004, according to CNN.com. The law bans butane lighters in carry-on luggage.
Congressmen who voted for the law cited the case of Richard Reid, a British citizen who unsuccessfully tried to ignite a shoe bomb with a match while on a flight from Paris to Miami in December 2001, according to CNN.
"The Transportation Security Administration realizes there is a threat from incendiary devices," said a spokesperson from the TSA Contact Center.
"There are two issues here: making people feel safer and making people be safer," said Brian Forst, a professor of justice, law and society in the School of Public Affairs.
Both are important, but how people feel is more consequential politically, and banning lighters that could be a threat is a good idea, Forst said.
Professor Emilio Viano, also a JLS professor in SPA, said the ban goes too far because it is "nitpicking."
"What we have to keep in mind is that nothing happened since 2001," Viano said. "Butane lighters can be dangerous, but then again many things can be dangerous."
The TSA still allows passengers to carry up to four strike-on-cover matchbooks, but matches could be added to the prohibited items list in the future, according to a spokesperson from the Contact Center.
Lighters were banned from checked luggage before the new policy was announced, according to the TSA.
Other students were not worried about the ban because they can buy lighters when they reach their destinations.
Students also said they did not think the new lighter ban would have too much of an effect on their travel plans.
"I probably wouldn't bring a lighter to the airport with me anyway," said Danielle Bertrand, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business. "So many things are banned - I would just assume lighters were too"
