[null and void]

Ammo for a rational response to idjits...

[RangeRatt]

great post! I, for one, think pilots SHOULD be armed, and should have been armed long before 9/11. The points made by the writer are quite valid, not only in theory, but in practical application. Frangible bullets, subsonic rounds, and other such types of projectiles have been readily available for years, and our pilots should not only be allowed, but trained, in firearms use.

The sad part of the whole thing is this, though- and I realize this has been said before, so many times- "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns". Well, guess what. Apply an "old west" scenario to a 767 Widebody aircraft: the passengers are the townspeople, the flight crew are the cavalry, and the terrorists, are, well, the Indians. The cockpit is the "fort", which must be defended, and what if the fort has no weapons with which to defend no only itself, but the townspeople? The Indians win.

Well, back to modern day- let's let the cavalry defend the fort.

[Mark Turbo]

Bump for armed pilots.

[Darlin']

We trust them with our lives every time we get on a plane but we don't want to trust them with a gun ?

[serinde]

Besides, I don't want non-lethal weapons. I want lethal ones. I don't like people who want to fly me into a large building. Killing them would suit me fine.

Nicely put.

Of course, at the moment one alternative is for a military aircraft to shoot him out of the sky, instead.

One pilot with gun = max 10 people down (mostly bad guys, even considering accidents), vs. one jet plane = all on board the aircraft dead.

I've heard screams about arming pilots but none against shooting down the entire plane. Makes you wonder.

[BluesDuke]

Actually, Archie Bunker for once was ahead of his time. (He also predicted in a 1978 episode that Ronald Reagan would win the White House in 1980 - and that was before Reagan had even decided to make one more try for it! - but that's another story.) In a 1971 episode of All in the Family, which centered on Archie's demand for equal TV time to rebuke a gun control freak, Archie went on that TV station and called, among other things, for passing out the pistols to passengers boarding flights, then collecting them when the passengers debarked after the flight.

[supercat]

But assume that the doors hold. The terrorists appear and begin cutting throats. First they kill the flight attendants. The pilots drive on, cowering behind the door that is their only protection. The terrorists say they will kill passengers until the pilots open the door. The pilots, now flying an abattoir, drive on because, being unarmed, they have little choice.

This is my one point of disagreement with the article. The pilots' job is to keep control of their aircraft. For them to intervene in the cabin would substantially increase the likelihood of them losing control of their aircraft.

Pilots should be issued firearms for the specific and sole purpose of securing the cockpit. For them to use their sidearm for any other purpose would be to invite disaster.