While we know you had no intention of using those screws as a deadly weapon..checking the rules and undergoing the inconvenience of checking your bag would have solved your problem. The TSA system isn't perfect, it really isn't that good at all but its better, marginally, than nothing.
My real issue is simple. If you consider it your God given right as an American to be a jackass, please be advised that the person you are exersizing that right with has an equal opportunity and right to be a jackass right back...and sometimes that person is simply gonna be better at it.
Quite frankly, I don't believe half of this guys story. He did something stupid to get some blog fodder...and he paid for it with 25 minutes of his precious time.
Big f-en deal.