Free Republic

The Obama administration is taking steps quietly to shut down the program that qualifies commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in jetliner cockpits in order to ward off another 9/11-type attack. The administration recently diverted $2 million from a program to train and certify pilots to carry firearms safely while on duty. Instead, it is using the money to hire additional field inspectors to help discipline pilots who step out of line, according to a report in Tuesday’s Washington Times.

Federal officials are denying a report that the Obama administration is seeking to end a program that allows trained airline pilots to carry guns. ... Sterling Payne, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, denied the report and said the program that oversees a reported 12,000 federal flight deck officers (FFDO) is actually expanding. "It's inaccurate, this program continues to grow," Payne told FOXNews.com of the editorial. "TSA continues to recruit and put new FFDOs on planes, and we continue to train them and do recurring training." ...

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings. Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology. The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.

<p>As was asked when this issue was debated -- and resolved, we thought -- "If you don't trust a pilot to carry a gun, what the fuck are you doing allowing him at the controls of a plane carrying 300 people?"</p>

WASHINGTON - Armed airline pilots may be at risk of discharging their weapons on planes because of cumbersome rules imposed by Congress and the Transportation Security Administration, a group representing the pilots said Tuesday. A 2002 law prohibits pilots from carrying their guns outside the cockpit without a trigger lock, and as a result they must frequently affix or remove trigger locks during flights. That law and the TSA policy that goes with it may be responsible for a March 22 incident in which a pilot accidentally discharged his weapon on U.S. Airways Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte, N.C.,...

Inadequate handgun rules designed by Department of Homeland Security officials are to blame for last weekend's accidental discharge of a pistol by a commercial pilot during landing preparations, a pilots association said yesterday. "The pilot has to take his gun off and lock it up before he leaves the cockpit, so he was trying to secure the gun in preparation for landing, while he was trying to fly the airplane, too," said David Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance. "In the process of doing that, the padlock that is required to be inserted into the holster pulled the...

A US Airways pilot accidentally discharged his gun in the cockpit during a flight from Denver to Charlotte, N.C., according to the Transportation Safety Administration. The Airbus A319 landed safely after the incident Saturday and without any injuries to the 124 passengers on board, a spokesperson for the TSA told ABCNEWS.com today. The TSA said the passengers were unaware that a gun had been fired in the cockpit. The pilot, who both the TSA and US Airways declined to identify, was a member of the Federal Flight Deck Officer program, an initiative put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001,...

CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- A US Airways pilot’s gun accidentally discharged during a flight from Denver to Charlotte Saturday, according to as statement released by the airline. The statement said the discharge happened on Flight 1536, which left Denver at approximately 6:45am and arrived in Charlotte at approximately 11:51am. The Airbus A319 plane landed safely and none of the flight’s 124 passengers or five crew members was injured, according to the statement. It was a full flight. An airline spokeswoman said the plane has been taken out of service to make sure it is safe to return to flight. A Transportation Safety...

In a recent interview, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida stated: "The need for guns in the cockpit is just nearly not [sic] as acute as it once was. There are all kind [sic] of screening systems, there is now the reinforced cockpit door, there are air marshals, we now have a lots of checks and balances."... Arming pilots is not a new idea....airline pilots flew armed in large numbers from the dawn of commercial aviation to 1987 with no record of incident. When the federal government disarmed pilots in 1987, many predicted cockpit takeover attempts — including the late Captain...

Time Magazine has an interesting article on armed airline pilots, noting that they are now making more flights than are air marshals! In his state of the union address, President Bush singled out federal air marshals—undercover armed agents who fly on U.S. airlines—for helping make "our homeland safer." But he neglected to mention a flying security force that has quietly grown even larger than the marshals: the nation's pilots. Two years ago, the Federal Flight Deck Officer program began training pilots who wanted to carry guns on flights to protect the cockpit. Aviation sources tell Time that more than 4,000...

Members of Congress are becoming frustrated with bureaucrats who have put roadblocks in the way of a program to arm airline pilots that Congress first authorized months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Three years later, only an estimated 4,000 of the more than 95,000 commercial pilots have participated in the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program. But this lack of participation does not indicate a lack of pilot interest, proponents say. They claim the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has intentionally stymied the program. A soon-to-be-released poll from the pro-gun Airline Pilots Security Alliance indicates upwards of 50,000 commercial...

www.gunowners.orgOct 2004 Immediate Action Needed! -- Reps. Goode and Paul to offer pro-gun amendment to stop TSA obstruction of the armed pilots program Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Wednesday, October 6, 2004 For three years, we've been fighting to give airline pilots the right to carry firearms for the protection of their passengers and their crew. And for every bill or amendment we've passed, Norm Mineta -- the liberal anti-gun Democrat who controls the Transportation Department -- has obstructed, resisted, and equivocated. When TSA was rolled into the Homeland Security Administration, more...

<p>Sens. Jim Bunning, Kentucky Republican, and Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, introduced the bill before the Easter recess to force the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to implement the Federal Flight Deck Officer program the way Congress intended.</p> <p>Mr. Bunning said the legislation "will take down the barriers TSA has thrown up, and will help make our skies more secure."</p>

www.gunowners.orgApr 2004 Congress to TSA: Arm More Pilots or Suffer Consequences Gun Owners of America 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA 22151 (703)321-8585 Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Gun Owners of America alerted you in January to legislation that would soon be introduced by two pro-gun legislators, Senator Jim Bunning (R) of Kentucky and Rep. Joe Wilson (R) of South Carolina. Last week, both legislators announced the introduction of their bills at a press conference that was attended by GOA and several pilot organizations. "These pilots are the last line of defense against hijackings," Sen. Bunning said. "They very well...

Senator Tells TSA: Arm Pilots or Lose Funding By Robert B. Bluey CNSNews.com Staff Writer April 02, 2004 Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Frustrated by the Transportation Security Administration's delay in arming airline pilots with guns, four members of Congress said Thursday they want the agency to quit dragging its feet. "We're not interested in any excuses from here on out. This is too important to our national security," said Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), who introduced legislation that would require TSA to speed up the process of arming pilots. Bunning was joined by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Conrad Burns...

WASHINGTON -- Members of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance and other pilot organizations will join U.S. Senators Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) at a press conference Thursday, April 1, 2004, at 11:30 a.m. (EST) where they will introduce new legislation that will force the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to implement the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program as originally intended by Congress. Since the armed pilots program was first created by Congress nearly two years ago the TSA has been dragging its feet in arming a fraction of the 100,000 pilots eligible to...

Southwest Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration are investigating the disappearance of a Federal Flight Deck Officer's (FFDO's) semi-automatic pistol stowed in his luggage aboard a flight from Las Vegas to Oakland. The pilots blame the TSA's insistence that the weapons be checked in baggage, when they are deadheading, for the disappearance of the guns. Pilots say that instead of picking up their gun-laden luggage from the cargo area, as the rules state, they often find it on the carousel with the rest of the passengers' bags. TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said the flight deck officers' jurisdiction ends at the...

<p>WASHINGTON — The FBI is warning that terrorists could potentially use pens filled with cartridges of poison as weapons, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by Fox News.</p> <p>A pen gun (search) is a small-caliber, single shot weapon that resembles a fountain pen.</p>

<p>Pilots already trained to carry guns and operate sophisticated weapons systems are among 100 applicants rejected from a federal program to arm flight-deck officers to protect aircraft from terrorist attacks.</p> <p>Former police officers, firearms instructors and military pilots have filed written complaints with the Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) program questioning its psychological- and background-test system, as well as its generic rejection letter that doesn't explain an applicant's purported shortcomings.</p>

<p>An airline pilots association estimates 30,000 commercial pilots who want to carry guns on flights never enrolled in the federal training program because its rules are too restrictive and make commercial airlines more vulnerable to terrorist hijackings.</p> <p>"They walked when they saw the actual program TSA [Transportation Security Administration] put in place," said Capt. Dave Mackett, president of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance. "There are 300 pilots on any given day to protect 35,000 flights. It's like policing Washington, D.C., with nine officers."</p>