Posted on 03/05/2002 11:30:05 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Doesn't this guy understand the concept of a "choke point"?
As long as we're making up fantasies, we'll equip them with mithril armor, arm them with phaser rifles, and provide the heavy weapons units with the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
You want a device that generates a huge electrical discharge in the cockpit?
If you're a pilot, I'm the King of Spain.
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I think reinstituting the draft would be good, especially now.
It would prevent things from happening like the pinhead airport screeners who hassled the old man carrying the Medal of Honor he won.
I believe basic training would introduce the various ranks, rates, awards, etc., to the boots.
Plus, it would teach enough of the general population about firearms, so they would not be these odious boogeymen-type devices that they are to libs like Ridge.
"Where will it all end?"
Ridge wouldn't say crazy stuff like that if he were not afraid of inanimate guns himself.
Ridge is not agressive enough to be in this particular bureaucratic position.
Get someone who is not afraid of his own shadow.
At least get someone with the reasoning skills to recognize that a pilot already has hundreds of times the power and responsibility by flying a planeload of passengers, as he does by packing a Chief's S&W .38 special.
Sheesh, it embarrasses me that you have to spell that out to people in this country.
You disagree with the premise of cockpit handoffs.
You don't want to walk through the terminal with a big iron swinging from your hip. Are you discounting concealed carry?
You think the potential for some idiot to take the firearm away from you outweighs the perceived benefit of being able to defend yourself and your passengers. Are you suggesting idiots are allowed in the cockpit? Or are you repeating one of the gun-grabber refrains about how you are more likely to be menaced with your own firearm than use it in self-defense?
What problem would you have getting through security? How do you think the police and national guard get through security with firearms?
I don't recall saying anything about keeping your guns at the office.
Yeah, it is a mystery! I don't have any real answers, but here is what I hope:
1. Bush values personal loyalty, so he keeps Ridge around to maintain this particular reputation (it's a 2-way street).
2. The Office of Homeland Security has no real power anyway, so why get excited about Ridge's demonstrated idiocy?
3. Ridge is a useful 'face' to present to a nervous congress. Less threatening to the Daschle-acolytes than, say, John Ashcroft would be.
Let me get this straight: You want airline pilots equipped with a device that distributes several thousand volts over very short range in the hopes that it will deter/stun an attacker, but your airline makes me turn off my palm pilot before takeoff? Try again!
Where, indeed!
Why, Tommy, it might 'end' with American citizens having the means of defending themselves against criminal and terrorist attacks.
There now, wasn't that simple?
Absolutely. If Ashcroft really had principles, then this conversation would not take place because he would declare all gun laws to be un-Constitutional, and therefore all citizens would armed as a matter of choice.
Ashcroft can talk a good game, but until he refuses, publicly, to enforce these moronic gun laws, he hasn't shown me anything but lies.
Then arm the passengers. Self defense should be an individual responsibility anyway.
I agree, you should be flying the plane.
White House officials, according to USA Today, say they believe Ridge's comments reflect President Bush's point of view, though Bush has never publicly commented on the issue.
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, a Cabinet-level holdover from the Clinton administration – which was hostile to gun rights – told the Los Angeles Times Saturday that he, too, didn't think pilots should be armed.
The following is from an airline pilot I know personally.
A really ignorant statement showing that he's made an uniformed decision based on emotion versus facts. He's clearly not researched this very well. You tell me how a pilot will defend the cockpit against a well trained terrorist team with a single shot Taser. The President of Taser International met with us last week. Great product - but they were unable to show me how it would have saved ONE aircraft on September 11th.
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