Posted on 07/31/2002 1:58:17 PM PDT by Conagher
Does seem to fly in the face of reason(no pun intended); I don't understand either...
FGS
"The Senate has no confidence in the continued leadership of the Transportation Department by Norman Minetta. Secretary Minetta consistently avoids implementing effective policy in favor of expensive policies that salve his multicultural conscience. The Senate hereby requests the President fire Secretary Minetta, and submit for Senate approval a candidate willing to ensure the safety of the flying public."
This is probably not a new idea, but just how difficult would it be to put a canister of sleeping(?) gas on board that could be opened as necessary? The pilots/crew would have gas masks so they could diffuse the situation and continue, or alternatively land the plane.
Anybody trying to board with a gas mask would be kinda suspicious, eh?
FGS
He'll veto something (eventually) if this gets through the Senate he'll sign it and take credit for it. I hear this is pretty much what he did in Texas...signed most everything the Demos sent him and took credit.
If pilots were serious I’d have no problem with it either. Let the pilot unions put the issue up to a vote of their members. Pass it by majority vote to arm and I’d bet something could be negotiated (both contractually and in congress) that would allow arming of ALL pilots while on the plane or on airline/airport property. We could do that. They do NOT want that. It is NOT what they have proposed.
They need to make the call – it’s necessary as a last line of defense or not.
I suspect that Mineta was deferring to (ex-BATF) Magaw on this one. From some of the off-the-record comments made about his "retirement", I suspect that Magaw said: "no guns for pilots or I quit".
The crescendo of incredulity meant that he had to take the latter option. Now, Mineta, Hollings, and even Bush are "reconsidering" the issue.
All they need to do is put it back to what it was at some point in the past: airlines have the option to arm their pilots. All the feds have to do is adjust the security procedures to accommodate it.
Airlines could make their choice and announce it (or not). Individual pilots could choose whether to participate -- just like most people in some states can choose whether to get a CHL and carry a handgun.
It would be an interesting market experiment:
Which airline would you prefer? Which airline do you think most people would choose?
I think is just all part of his "uniter not a divider" get along policy. The person in charge of making the policy is a Clinton appointee, and Bush delegates, letting the people responsible for the decisions make them. I'm guessing that he's jut not going to force his will on this.
I hope if he's reelected in a landslide and we get the Senate back, we get a more aggressive Bush.
Because the airlines are all against it. I'm for arming the pilots but suppose you own a business that you created. The government tells you one morning that all of your foremen have to be armed. What is your gut reaction to that? The very first thing that goes through your mind is, who is responsible if something goes wrong? Are you liable if a foreman decides to start shooting on the way to work? Etc. It's one thing for the government to create changes in a government terminal that you rent space from. It's another when they tell you how to run your business.
And even that is unlikely. THe aircraft pressurization system can easily keep up with a bullet sized hole. I've been told that it can keep up with a blow-out window, as well.
It would be noisy as hell, but the largest danger would be to passengers that had heart attacks because they believed the movie dramatizations of a similar event.
Loading a gun with frangible ammo is really to avoid overpenetration of the intended target. In close quarters like that, you want the bullet to expend all its energy on the target and not punch through -- potentially hitting the innocent person standing behind it.
Gas cannisters don't vote!
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