Posted on 10/04/2001 9:38:13 PM PDT by kattracks
Commercial airline pilots will be asked to suspend air service if they cannot have trained, armed pilots in the cockpits, a New Hampshire pilot said. A resolution that will be circulated among the various councils of the 67,000-member Air Line Pilots Association this month asks federal regulations be changed to allow for the voluntary arming of flight crew members, Robert Giuda, a United Airlines captain of Warren said. “Had we had armed pilots on Sept. 11, we wouldn’t have the horrific tragedy that we’re dealing with at this point,” Giuda said of the four hijacked jetliners. Pilots would first get training in firearms by the FBI and would use their weapons only to defend against an attempted breach of the cockpit, the resolution said. The resolution also calls for federal licensing of pilots to carry concealed weapons and for the government to indemnify air carriers and their employees against the legitimate use of a firearm. If those steps are not carried out, the resolution calls for “a national suspension of air service, at such times and in such manner as is deemed appropriate by the leadership of the Air Line Pilots Association.” “We’re hearing members of Congress say they don’t want a bunch of armed hooligans running around,” said Giuda, a New Hampshire state representative. He said there was “no more professionalized, highly-scrutinized group of people in the world than airline pilots.” The security of the flight deck cannot depend solely on armed sky marshals, he said. Sky marshals can be picked out of a crowd and, if overpowered, would provide a hijacker with a weapon, Giuda said. “It’s time to throw the gauntlet to the mat. We are going to get politicized into unarmed cockpits and then we’ll get shot with the guns the marshals used because they will be taken away from them,” he added. Arming pilots introduces the element of “risk, fear and doubt” into the mind of a potential hijacker, he said.
Thank God the man, aka Richard Gaines :) , is not a Senator. Bad enough that he stains the House of Representatives with his oily presence.
They must be talking/thinking about the several government agencies that have armed divisions (FDA, EPA, BLM, etc., they need not and should not be armed as a job description) and SWAT teams. I certainly hope and expect armed pilots to be at least 500% more responsible than government thugs.
Precisely. Someone can be trusted with a 100-ton missle that flies through the air at 700mph but cannot be trusted with a 20-oz sidearm that shoots a 1/3oz bullet (which, incidentally, doesn't even travel through the air all that much faster than the aircraft).
If the terrorists can't get through to the cockpit, then what is the problem with the pilots being armed, particularly if, as even you admit, they have the appropriate temperment for handling firearms.
Simply put, if the guns are in the cockpit, and the terrorists can't get to the cockpit, then there is no problem with the pilots being armed. Conversely, if the terrorists can get to the cockpit, then the pilots should be armed because they will be the thin blue line in the sky which stands between us and another 9/11 atrocity. So no matter how you look at it is a no brainer as far as the pilots being armed.
Cool heads and gun control result in disasters like that which occured on 9-11-01.
Yes, that's the primary lesson of the attacks of 9-11; that a passenger jet airliner can be transformed into a guided missile by means of hijacking. For the price of a few box-cutters as weapons, and lessons on flying, ordinary vehicles were turned into the deadliest weapons ever to hit this country.
The images of the exploding and burning WTC towers is forever seared in my mind. I wonder if our esteemed politicians in Washington in the Congress have already forgotten these images, or whether the images ever registered with them in the first place!
About the possible walkout. This is one even anti-union people can get behind. This isn't pilots who are already making king-sized salaries out on a picket line demanding even higher salaries and perks. These are guys who want to be able to defend themselves, their plane, and their most precious responsibility, their passengers! At 67,000 strong they're already a little over 6 divisions worth of front-line defenders! Just as with the military, give them the tools to do their job!
And what part of an airline cockpit is in the public square? Last I looked the airplanes were private property. The law, but not FAA policy, already allows for pilots to be armed. Seems the "Public Square" spoke on the issue sometime ago. It's just that unelected bureacrats didn't go along with their supposed masters. All they need to do is run the pilots through the shooting and safety part of the sky marshalls course, and let the Airlines buy them the proper ammunition.
Then of course there is the little issue of the pilots being part of the group called by the term of art "the people" in the Constitution. That group whose right to keep nad bear arms is not be infringed, per the terms of the second article of amendment to that documnet.
Sure, 10 trained ready to take their place. Eager even.. I don't think so.
It is their Constitutional right to defend themselves and their duty to defend the cockpit.
I find most people who are against pilots having guns are against anyone else have guns either.
If is the middle word in life. It comes between 'birth' and 'death'.
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