I fly out of a small airport in Texas and, until I finally got PreCheck, I got patted down every SINGLE time I flew, despite the fact that the number of people in my demographic who have ever hijacked a plane or carried out a terror attack is, as far as I know, zero.
I had a flight a few years ago. Take off the shoes, take off the jacket, go through the scanner, get patted down, the whole annoying mess.
So, I finally got through security and sit down a few feet away to put my boots back on. I glanced down at my purse, sitting beside me, and was totally shocked. My purse had gone through the x-ray scanner; sitting right on top was my key chain, with my PINK pepper spray canister! They patted me down, but completely missed the pepper spray sitting right there. I had forgotten to take the pepper spray off my key chain.
I got myself together and strolled down to the ladies’ room where I put that thing in the trash.
My wife suffers through that as well even if she is a matronly looking harmless grandma type. On one occasion, the TSA agent actually apologized and told her that had to show records that they got people like her so they could defend themselves against possible profiling. I kid you not.
BTW, you should have kept your pepper spray.
My wife and I look like completely harmless old white couple, a demographic that I do not believe has ever tried to hijack an airliner. My brother is an airline captain. Yet on a couple of occasions we have been strip searched and asked all sorts of nonsensical questions. At the same time people in line with us who are exactly the type of people who have been responsible for nearly every recent terror attack get through without even a pat down.
The TSA likes to spend their time and resources searching people who will not make a big deal about it. They are politically correct security and are completely ineffective. This is not how they do things in areas such as Israel and other places where they are constantly under threat.
As your experience shows... the TSA is mostly a bunch of low IQ affirmative action hires who are just going through the motions. The TSA is a complete waste of effort and funds.