My dad's first criticism of the "air marshal" approach was the cost to pay 1 or more marshals per aircraft. They are going to have to factor that into the price of airline tickets or face the same stupid consequences as California purchasing electricity with tax dollars. It would be much better to have citizens with CCWs that have had an extra certification aboard aircraft. Ditto for pilots. I would pay the cost out of my pocket for the extra certification on top of my CCW in exchange for the right to be armed (with proper ammo) and excused from the asinine shakedown by security. As with any CCW holder, the ideal situation is to never have to fire the weapon. After the Sep 11th attack, I wouldn't think twice about intervening.
My dad's first criticism of the "air marshal" approach was the cost to pay 1 or more marshals per aircraft. This in an excellent point, and one that is often ignored by the people who place "emotion over logic".
Yes, it would be nice to have an air marshall on every flight, but it is cost prohibitive as you state and John Lott implies. Furthermore, the job is incredibly boring, and a high turnover rate should be expected.
As a taxpayer, if someone has been thourougly trained, and is "clean" enough to get a security clearance, I'd much rather have them chasing down terrorists than keeping a seat plane warm for their entire careers.
CCW holders, police officers, and pilots should definately be allowed to carry guns on flights.
I too, would gladly pay for the extra training to be able to carry on board. It is absolutly ridiculus that American citizens are being stripped of their fingernail files because some one some where did not do the job that they were suppossed to do. To be fair, I don't think that box cutters were ever prohibited, but even if they were, a regular pocket knife could have done the same thing.
Let the citizenry be armed, and many of the evils in today's world go away.