[ppaul]

"Law enforcement officers shouldn't fly commercial airliners, and airline pilots shouldn't carry guns..."

Sheesh!

Where do they finds these guys?
Anyway, FReep the heck out of his poll.

[Bahbah]

Looks like the forces of commen sense are doing ok.

[Khepera]

According to the results of the pool. This article is a lie. Most people want the pilots to carry guns and the cabin crew to carry stun guns.

[Jeff Head]

Here's my reply to the article on their site:

Mr. Anthony's article about Pilots with Guns is just simply wrong.

His comment that Law Enforcement shouldn't fly commercial airliners and Airline Pilots shouldn't carry guns is so pathetically flawed in logic that it would be laughable if it were not so serious.

Guns in the cockpit, in the hands of a trained pilot (trained to fly and trained to shoot) would be the most effective final deterrent to hi-jacking and terror possible. We already entrust our lives to them, most are military trained, and the guns could easily be secured for their use alone. As a final resort ... I like it much better than a sidewinder missile up a jet exhaust.

Besides ... the poll I looked at there on your own site belies Mr. Anthony's comments about his own 100 voter poll. Over 2500 respondents on your poll and 82% approve of guns in the cockpit.

Sincerely,

Jeff Head
Emmett, ID

Author of Dragon;s Fury - Breath of Fire
A novel of the next World War

Eagles Up!

[OKSooner]

"Eric Mold, a retired Air Force fighter pilot in Vancouver, B.C., points out that even if only one out of 1,000 pilots carrying a weapon is "intent on doing mischief," that number is an unacceptable risk. "I call upon the other 99.9% of the [airline pilots] to reject this stupid idea," Mold says. So now the risk of some pilot going nuts and shooting people outweighs the need for control of the aircraft in case of an emergency. He just insulted the hsit out of all the airline pilots.

Also, why is this guy interviewing Canadians? Or is this "retired Air Force fighter pilot" just some dude who moved to Canada for some reason?

Anyway, his poll was just freeped and it needs to be freeped some more. The numbers are ONLY over 80% and 70% on the right side...

[OKSooner]

Let me get this straight. Some pilot is "intent on doing mischief", so he's flying the airliner, with a revolver on his hip. Faced with the choice of either crashing the airliner or shooting six people on the airliner, what's he gonna do?

This Anthony guy is just a jackass.

[leadpenny]

How do readers feel? 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.

Some readers do feel it makes sense to have an armed crew. Several echo the view of Dave Bulicek of Crystal Lake, Ill., who says that allowing attendants to carry tasers is "a no-brainer." He asks, "What harm can come from that?"

The inmates have made their takeover of the asylum complete. Guns under the voluntary control of pilots while on duty, and in a safe in operations at other times, makes good sense. Tasers in the cabin makes no sense.

[Destructor]

Freeped it! So far, it's a runaway!! Let's blow the lid off this one!!!

[MinuteGal]

Freeped and bumped.

Leni

[BADROTOFINGER]

Freeped and bumped. Readers everywhere in this guys mind agree, no guns in the cockpits...JFK

[FreeAtlanta]

Do you believe that a commercial airline pilot should be allowed to carry a gun in the cockpit?

- 2545 respondents

Yes
82%
No
18%

[reform4me]

probably in the the school of common sense. pilots need to be concerned with safely flying the aircraft and not heroics better left to someone else, air marshalls or whatever.

[JoeGar]

If a pilot cannot carry a gun, then chances are that the cockpit is undefended because there can never be enough sky marshalls to fly on every flight. Besides, I'd feel more secure with an armed pilot than with an armed sky marshall sitting in the passenger section. Why try to sneak a weapon on board when you can simply overwhelm the sky marshall and seize his weapons?

[steve-b]

Says Brown, who used to be required to carry a firearm when flying, "Law enforcement officers shouldn't fly commercial airliners

Well, la de da....

[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.

[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]

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

[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.