Armed pilots pose risks (VPC at it again)

USA TODAY and VPC ^ | 8-26 | Kristen Rand

[Dan from Michigan]

The recent call to arm pilots has a disturbingly familiar ring

[Dan from Michigan]

Kristen Rand is Josh Sugarmann's top assistant. Nuff Said.

[FormerLurker]

You forgot to include a

BARF ALERT

[TheDon]

Unarmed pilots pose risks

[Octar]

A handgun on every plane would mean that the weapon, by definition, would be potentially available to every passenger

A handgun on every policeman would mean that the weapon, by definition, would be potentially available to every person in the city.

Great thinking from the folks who think everyone else is dumber than they are.

[Commiewatcher]

"The recent call to arm pilots has a disturbingly familiar ring — reminiscent of cries to arm schoolteachers following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre."

I think that teachers in Israeli schools are armed and you don't hear about any violence in Israeli schools.

[Patriotic Rich]

You're right! I gotta stop reading the ones that raise my blood presure.

[Dan from Michigan]

VPC is automatic.

[ladtx]

Here it is. I finally found it. I thought I had misplaced it. The pigs will be much happier and cleaner now that I've found the hogwash.

[HoweverComma]

The biggest security problem is that you can get access to the cockpit from the passenger cabin. Isolate the cockpit completely, and a hijacking becomes a LOT more difficult to execute, and commandeering the plane to fly it into a building becomes impossible. Pilots riding as a passenger can ride with the passengers.

Pilots are not CQB experts, and people who are not CQB experts (including myself) have no business carrying a firearm on an airplane.

How about an armored bulkhead between the cockpit and passenger cabin, with no door at all? The pilots board via separate entrance, and they have their own toilet and a fridge for munchies and drinks.

[Constitutional Patriot]

"Experience also teaches that when police fire their weapons, they sometimes make grave mistakes in deciding when deadly force is justified. "

Gee...I wonder why cops are so hesitant to draw their weapon at the first onset of a confrontation?!?! Most of these poor officers who have their firearms used against them delay in drawing their weapon for fear of "getting in trouble". These liberal puke bastards are the cause of the problem adn they are to arrogant and ignorant to realize it. Send them to Afghanistan!!!!

[from occupied ga]

Kristin Rand, Josh Sugarman, Brady, McKelvey, are all just as much enemies of the US as is bin Laden, and should meet the same end. Their terrorism consists of disarming us and facilitating those criminal acts which require helpless victims. Just as those who support bin Laden are to be considered just as guilty. Those who wish to make us defenseless are also guilty.

[alpowolf]

Pilots are not CQB experts, and people who are not CQB experts (including myself) have no business carrying a firearm on an airplane

This is one argument that I get tired of hearing. "Since the bad guys are all Supermen, and the good guys are all stumblebums, self-defense is worse than hopeless and shouldn't be attempted." What incredible nonsense. People who aren't so-called "experts" defend themselves successfully every day. No, there is no 100% guarantee that something won't go wrong. That's life. Besides, I have little doubt that the pilots would be glad to get such training.

That could be implemented far faster than the "armored bulkheads", separate toilets, etc. It's not as easy as putting up a screen door. The plane would require major alterations.

[ohioman]

Yeah whatever.....BLAH. BLAH. BLAH.

It doesn't take that much training to ensure that guns are used safely. In fact, the arming of the pilots is voluntary for each pilot. A pilot should have the right to defend himself if he so chooses. This is just another means of defense.

[HoweverComma]

The penalty for screwing up in that confined a space includes DEAD friendlies. You seem REAL casual about that.

Why not use El Al's techniques? They haven't EVER had a hijacking. And it isn't because they let everyone carry a hogleg...

Make cockpit access from the passenger cabin impossible.

[HoweverComma]

It doesn't take that much training...get real! The majority of bullets fired in a close-range gunfight by people without much training MISS. They don't magically evaporate--they keep going until they hit someTHING or someONE that will stop them. And in a crowded airplane, the odds of hitting an innocent is incredibly high. I suppose you're comfortable with that. I'm not. I'm looking for a way to PREVENT that possibility and still prevent hijackings.

And physically isolating the cockpit from the cabin looks like the simplest way.

[ArGee]

Clearly many necessary steps can be taken to protect pilots and passengers, short of arming pilots, such as dramatically improving screening on the ground and reinforcing cockpit doors in the air.

Like we haven't been taking steps to protect the pilots and passengers for over 20 years? We'll take more, but people who are determined will overcome them. When they do, they can rest assured that there is no one on board who can resist them because they are the only ones armed.

Take that guarantee away. There is much greater chance that a plane will be hijacked than that a gun will go off accidentally or that both pilots will lose their guns to an attacker.

Shalom.

[aomagrat]

Recognizing the simple physics of handgun possession at 30,000 feet, another serious threat is unintentional discharge. Many handgun models, including popular brands used by law enforcement officers, can fire when dropped or bumped.

If a gun is dropped from an airplane at 30000 feet, the greatest danger would be someone on the ground getting hit by the gun, not the gun going off when it hits the ground.

[Looking4Truth]

Kristen Rand is legislative director of the Violence Policy Center.

A useful idiot with a useless title in a useless organization.

Where do I sign up to get one of those do-nothing jobs, I'm tired or having to work for a living. /sarcasm

[SUSSA]

Israel armed teachers, parents and grandparents who volunteered to guard schools in 1974. They haven't had a school killing since then.

We turned our schools into targets by making them safe for killers who know they will not face a self-defense tool and we got what we should have expected. Disarming the victims is not the way to protect them.

Doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. The opposition to arming pilots and teachers has nothing to do with safety. It is wallowing in blood to make a political statement.