In the late 70s my brother was quite surprised to see the Carabinieri carrying Uzis at DaVinci

[Stinky The Clown]

He called me after he and his wife had landed just to tell me that. I never forgot it.

Today, we see armed men openly carrying automatic weapons at every US airport.

My, how we have evolved as a species.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

1. The first time I saw military with automatic weapons at a US airport...

...I felt like Mel Gibson in the last scene in YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY.

[ret5hd]

2. Did they get to pee on the last hour of flight? If so, I'm surprised they made it home!!!

[CTyankee]

3. I've seen quite a few armed uniformed men in Rome and Madrid.

Just in the last few years. I thought it had to do with their being capitals of their country, but when I was in Lisbon last fall I didn't see any. My guess is that nobody would go after Portugal...irrelevancy has its benefits, doesn't it?

[EFerrari]

4. I had the same reaction in 68 in El Salvador.

I'd never seen so many armed guys in my life outside of a war movie.

[abelenkpe]

5. I used to think this type of thing was

reserved for countries like Turkey or Nigeria.

:-(

[StarfarerBill]

6. "Evolved"? No, I think that's another sign of devolution.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. Late 70's were quite dodgy in Italy...

...Brigate Rossi, RAF, Italian neo-Facists, Palestinians...they call them 'The Years of Lead". I remember at least one car bomb when I was living in Rome in '78...