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It is really coming through Torie. You are just afraid of guns.

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.

You do have a point. Actually a rather good point. But of course, if the doors are really secure, a rather tangential point. I am not afraid of guns, but I am not in love with them either. And I choose not to make them my hobby.

Yep. This issue highlights the dividing line between people who think that firearms are talismans of evil and people who think that they are tools with rationally measurable advantages and disadvantages.

For people who take the former view, it only stands to unreason that pilots should not be exposed to an object that will slowly corrupt its bearer, like the One Ring.