Dropping our guard again can’t become the legacy of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The Transportation Security Administration’s decision to let passengers carry pocketknives on flights unnecessarily rolls back protections designed to keep 9/11 from happening again.

Terrorists used simple box cutters to take over planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001.

Now the TSA will allow smaller pocketknives — blades less than 2.36 inches long and less than half an inch wide — on planes.

Small blades can be sharpened into deadly weapons.

At least that was the fear when pocketknives were banned in the first place.

Those blades are just as deadly now as they were in 2001.

The TSA policy aligns the United States with international standards and allows the TSA to concentrate on more serious safety threats, the agency said.

The TSA may believe those knives and small bottles of shampoo or lotion are harmless. But terrorists have hidden explosives in tennis shoes.

Criminals and terrorists count on people letting down their guard because they don’t like the inconvenience of being diligent.

Many of the things that are banned for carry-on are acceptable to be in luggage kept in the plane’s cargo hold.

Anyone who is surprised by having a pocketknife seized has not been paying attention for the last 12 years.

You don’t stop brushing your teeth because your dentist says you don’t have cavities.

Keeping potential weapons off planes is not a violation of passengers’ rights.

Keeping terrorists off planes is an affirmation of passengers’ rights.

— Distributed by The Associated Press