Congress needs to realize that PILOTS are already armed with something a lot more dangerous than a gun which can only be used to kill the people on board, if you could get them to stand still and if you had enough ammo.
In reality, pilots control a large gasoline can moving at high speed totally under their control, as the Terrorists so ably demostrated. The pilots are armed to the teeth, why not give them a measly little gun to PREVENT the big weapon from getting out of their control.
It is soooo logical to arm pilots that I can't stand it. Why would additional personnel (marshalls) in the cabin where the marshalls are subject to hijacking be preferable to just setting up the last line of defense and making sure no one could be better armed than that last line without destroying the plane???
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).
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!
I totally agree. You know, this is not an isolated incident where politicians, bureaucrats, journalists and special interest groups suddenly had a mental disorder where logic abandoned them. It is typical. Common incompetence. Intentionally creating problems where they need not exist.
Think about it, if they, especially politicians and bureaucrats can fail in logic that any other person would readily assume a logical course of action -- Torie is the only one of fifty people on this thread that doesn't "get it" -- there is an extremely high probability that politicians and bureaucrats fail just as miserably if not more so regarding other issues.
Most people on FreeRepublic should seek to understand the profound meaning of that. In short, it amounts to this...
Who are the value producers? Who are the value destroyers?
Protect the value producers -- prosecute the value destroyers.
It will cost taxpayers two to three billion dollars a year to fund the training and salaries of sky marshals and it still won't solve the problem nearly as well as armed pilots -- there's a much greater risk that a terrorist will gain control of sky marshal's gun and use it to effectively turn the plane into a missile. ...If politicians and bureaucrats have it their way -- Who are the value destroyers? To add more logic is that Front Sight Firearm Training Institute -- arguably the best in the country and probably the world -- is offering to train commercial pilots for FREE -- Who are the value producers?
Protect the value producers -- prosecute the value destroyers.