The same thing holds true with firearms, but-

just like at airports- it's so much nicer and more sensitive to blame objects rather than people. And you get to screw everyone around instead of actually looking for bad guys:
Of course the Israelis check for bombs and weapons too, but always with the understanding that things don't hijack planes, terrorists do -- and that the best way to detect terrorists is to focus on intercepting not bad things, but bad people. To a much greater degree than in the United States, security at El Al and Ben Gurion depends on intelligence and intuition -- what Rafi Ron, the former director of security at Ben Gurion, calls the human factor.
Bold mine.

We KNOW what works and what doesn't in airline security, but we're largely doing Security Theater instead of what works; we've got people who get annoyed and dare to speak being threatened and sometimes arrested on bullcrap charges instead of screening as we should. Kind of like Nanny Bloomberg and Mayors Against All Guns trying to ban guns instead of actually worrying about the people who are the threat; it's so much more politically correct.
Illustration thanks to BH