Pilots with guns? Most readers say no (semi-BARF alert, with poll to FREEP)

MSN bCentral ^ | 6/10/02 | Joseph Anthony

[R. Scott]

"Do you believe that a commercial airline pilot should be allowed to carry a gun in the cockpit? - 2566 respondents
Yes – 82%
No - 18 %

Do you believe that flight attendants should be able to carry nonlethal stun guns? - 2618 respondents
Yes – 76%
No - 24 %"

[Quila]

Cool, I just participated in my first poll FReep. I'm happy.

[Quila]

Few pilots would have the resolve not to give up their weapon to save a crew member with a box-cutter to his or her throat. Well-trained law enforcement officers are immeasurably better prepared to handle such situations."

Um, except for the fact that they wouldn't be there to do anything! I'm sure that well-trained cop back at LAX is going to do a lot of good at 36,000 feet over Arizona.

[Destructor]

"Let's blow the lid off this one!!!"

"Agreed. But remember, the poll is gonna run until 9/2002. Go back and continue to FReep, even after this thread is history."

Good point! I plan to FReep it daily!

[Shooter 2.5]

My letter to the so-called expert:

Your article on arming the pilots seems to be worthless. The poll at the right of the article already says that the people want the pilots to be armed and that the flight attendents should carry non lethal weapons. In fact, I have never seem a poll that even comes close to claiming as you do that the people don't want the pilots to be armed. Your readership of 100 people claiming anything doesn't seem like the group I would pay attention to. If I wanted to know something about the subject, I would listen to the pilots and the attendents.

[Shooter 2.5]

And that's why the pilots were forced to use a fire axe in the last incident. The pilots and the attendants want to be armed. They are the sole experts of this question and they should be armed.

[Shooter 2.5]

A gun isn't a security blanket. Of course it isn't. It provides real security better than this idiot's blanky.

[wita]

You have it exactly right, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights do not stop at the airport door, despite the move to make it so, it will never be so, and there are enough exceptions right now, that it shouldn't be so, but with the intellect of those in power, we the sheeple are saddled with the unworkable, unjustifiable, unconstitutional, position given us by the inmates to the asylum, commonly called bureaucrats, and elected officials.

[4CJ]

The poll left off the opinion of "Arming the passengers". I'd vote yes.

Where do these morons come from? Now if a plane is hijacked (due to these pathethic, pacifistic measures) the entire planeload of people will die thanks to a US fired missile at their 6. How encouraging - hundreds die because a pilot/passenger can't defend the plane. Now we all turn around and wait with bated breath a missile fired by our countrymen.

[Let's Roll]

Does this idiot realize that official govt policy is to shoot down future hijacked planes? That means even, gasp, the plane he may be on. Do ANY of these people understand that? Only dimlibs could prefer that policy to arming the pilots.

[leadpenny]

Putting any weapons in the cabin as a matter of routine is to ask for trouble. However, if it were on a case-by-case voluntary basis, as it should be for the pilots, and unknown to the flying public, I would agree. Any potential terrorist should not know how much fire power they might have to deal with.

[Khepera]

Look at the poll. The poll indicates most people favor pilots being armed.

[Dick Bachert]

To those who will inevitably – and stupidly – argue that pilots and FOs just cannot be trusted with the decision about when it’s time to pull a trigger, better tell the up to 500 folks sitting in the back that the guys up front are judgment-impaired!

Personally, I’d prefer to take my chances with a rapid decompression (which ain’t all that big a deal if the masks deploy and the guys up front can get it down to under 12K) than watch some madman take MY flight into a building or the ground at 500 mph. That was the final experience of 266 fellow humans on 9/11. I KNOW I – like they – won’t survive that!

And pay VERY close attention to the "solutions" being offered by those in government: They are NOT talking about REMOVING the limitations they have ALREADY placed on us as individuals to DEFEND OURSELVES. They are beginning to talk about FURTHER RESTRICTIONS on our liberties and MORE GOVERNMENT! More GOVERNMENT? The same GOVERNMENT that failed so miserably in its obligation to protect citizens that 3,000 of them died like cattle in a slaughterhouse on September 11th?

The same government – led by former BATF capo JOHN MAGAW! -- that now FIGHTS to keep pilots UNARMED because it -- ostensibly -- fears a few innocent passengers MIGHT be harmed -- but will order F-16s (often manned by OTHER commercial pilots serving as week-end warriors) to SHOOT DOWN THE AIRCRAFT, KILLING ALL ABOARD

THAT GOVERNMENT??

Mindful of Voltaire's caveat that "It is dangerous to be RIGHT when the state is WRONG," I am compelled to offer that one has to actually be IN government for ANY OF THIS to make ANY sense.

[ppaul]

Congratulations.
Sort of gives you a nice warm feeling, eh?

[leadpenny]

Nice rant.

It should be pointed out that even a few bullet holes in the pressurized skin is not going to cause a problem. Even at 30K+ feet, those engine compressors are putting out excess pressurization air. And, that's right, the flying pilot (hopefully not the one shooting terrorists) would instinctively be getting the airplane down to the lower altitudes.

[ppaul]

Now if a plane is hijacked (due to these pathethic, pacifistic measures) the entire planeload of people will die thanks to a US fired missile at their 6.

Gee, doesn't it make you feel safe to know that our cold-war policy is applied to airline safety?
Mutual Assured Destruction.
Yeah.
That's the ticket.
That'll really be an deterrent for suicidal Islamic serial murderers!

[ppaul]

The same government – led by former BATF capo JOHN MAGAW!

Uh, really?
And here I've been thinking it was George W. Bush all along.
Silly me.

[Dick Bachert]

Silly you is right.

In case you slept through Civics class, ALL members of an administration serve at the pleasure of -- and are essentially EXTENSIONS OF -- the guy in the Oval Office.

That INCLUDES Mineta the Mental Midget and Magaw the Man With the Plan at Waco.

Here endeth the lesson.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Overall, by a margin of more than a 2 to 1, a majority of respondents found fault with the idea of putting weapons on planes

[Khepera]

you're not looking at this poll are you? You need to inspect it again. The figures you are reciting must be from the liberal lie poll. It does not reflect reality.