MORE PILOTS 'PACKING' FOR FLIGHTS

New York Post ^ | 4/25/03 | AP

[kattracks]

April 25, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - Hundreds more commercial airline pilots will be trained to carry guns in the cockpit by Sept. 30, as the federal government committed $8 million to train them, the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday.

The first 44 pilots allowed to carry guns were sworn in as federal flight-deck officers on Saturday after a week of classes, drills and testing at a federal law-enforcement facility in Glynco, Ga.

[drlevy88]

I would imagine there won't be much occasion for the pilot to use his pistol, since the cockpit has to be sealed off from the passenger area in flight by a supposedly un-breachable door. But it's still nice to have that one last precaution.

[Greybird]

About bloody time -- the emphasis, in light of the boxcutters of Nine Eleven, being on bloody.

If they now showed enough sense to also allow all CCW permit holders to take their weapons (with frangible ammo) on board, we could eliminate the rest of the police State and breast-groping brigades at the airports.

All peaceable customers should be able to take weapons on board, o'course -- but that would mean actually following the Second Amendment, which is (to quote Janeane Garofalo) "not hip" these days.

[upcountryhorseman]

Thank God for that!