The real analogy here is that the ultra rich needn’t deal with the TSA because they fly private.

Just because the response is a bad one doesn't mean that the problem doesn't exist.

FWIW, even if TSA is bad at stopping terrorists, I AM glad that all of these people punching flight attendants are, with certainty c. 1, not packing heat.

Seriously, how often does this happen? I've flown a fair amount in my life (in Europe though) and I've never seen any commotion on a plane. I've read about some incidents, but I've read about a lot of fucked up stuff that I'm not concerned about in my life.

It's along the lines with everything these days. Someone does something bad and someone else gets shocked and then everyone wants to stop something like that from happening ever again, through whatever means, without realizing the incredible inconvenience (and complexity) this causes over time when repeated ad infinitum.

If only 1% of those people were armed, that would still be very very scary!