I got selected for "special attention" at the gate a couple of years ago - I was flying one-way because I was driving back with my mom in a rental truck with a load of furniture and dishes was giving me. So, I got taken aside, and patted down. It was not an intrusive pat down, though, and I didn't have to peel back my waistband or anything like that. I had to take off my shoes. It was absurd - the screen didn't really look at them, just lifted them up and set them down. Then my carry-on bag - she just unzipped, and riffled the stuff on top, and closed it. Then my purse - she didn't look through it, either. Unzipped the main compartment, lifted out my wallet, just looked at it, put it back in my purse and zipped it up. Now, my purse had a whole lot of other zipped up compartments that she never looked at. It really was ridiculous, and I was highly annoyed by it. It was Southwest Airlines, I was in group A, and by the time she was through, everyone else was on the plane.
Same thing happened to my mom on her way home. Now, being elderly, she should have been able to preboard. Like me, she had a group A boarding pass, but she was selected for extra screening at the gate. By the time they were through with her, everyone else had boarded, and she got the last seat on the plane. It really stinks. But apparently, this kind of treatment makes a lot of people "feeeeeellll" safer.
I came back from Texas with a watermellon in my suit-case once, and when it went through the X-ray machine they really wanted to find out what could possibly look like that.
I almost told them it was an elephant testicle and I was doing genetic research, but you remember... No joking.
Oh yeah; I'd feel safer too....from psychotic grannies with a bone to pick, but is that really a big problem? As long as we aren't targeting the ones that are actually CAUSING the problems (read mideastern Muslims), then it's pretty hard to take this whole security thing seriously. I'll stay off the planes, thanks just the same.