What would your response be to the person who "joked" that they were pissed off with United Airlines, and would like to remind them that his house was on the approach path to SFO, and the next time United lost his luggage, he would be more than happy to repay them by taking a few potshots at their 747s with his trusty .22?
Sometimes the way we keep airplanes full of passengers from falling out of the sky, is by looking for, and engaging, potential bad actors. The way to determine if someone is a bad actor, is by looking for signals of such intent. And, I think all things equal, this guy probably was throwing off signals that he was a bad actor, even if it's obvious to anyone who knows him, that he's just being a jackass.
One can't investigate every threat. You have to prioritize. Part of prioritizing is determining how much damage can be done with the resources available to the person.
If someone says "I'm gonna bring down the Golden Gate Bridge with this 12" stick of balsa wood." you don't give them a second thought. They may have hostile intent, but they clearly lack the understanding of how to, or the means to[0], cause harm to the bridge.
If someone says "I'm the operator of this container ship full of high explosives and I'm going to ram it into the GG Bridge and detonate the explosives.", then you investigate that, as the person very probably has both the intent and means to cause actual harm.
We -as a society- used to refuse to be terrorized. We used to laugh off incredible[1] threats as the insanity, bluster, or cathartic ranting that they clearly were. We (or maybe just our investigative and enforcement organizations) freak out much more over much smaller things these days. Our society is poorer and weaker because of this.
I hope that encouraging people to learn to put threats into perspective will help reverse this trend. Perhaps a calm, level-headed populace will calm its over-reactionary leaders, investigators, and enforcers.
I’d tell him that if he wants to waste law enforcement’s time, he’d need to come up with a more realistic threat, and suggest that maybe instead he ought to try going dancing, or maybe relax on the beach. Also, maybe call him up next time there’s a falling bullet injury in Hunters Point.
Sometimes the way we keep airplanes full of passengers from falling out of the sky, is by looking for, and engaging, potential bad actors. The way to determine if someone is a bad actor, is by looking for signals of such intent. And, I think all things equal, this guy probably was throwing off signals that he was a bad actor, even if it's obvious to anyone who knows him, that he's just being a jackass.