Posted on 05/21/2002 7:34:17 AM PDT by Cagey
WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal government said Tuesday that pilots will not be allowed to have guns in the cockpits of commercial airplanes.
The announcement was made at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing by John Magaw, undersecretary for transportation security. It followed months of debate over whether arming pilots would be a deterrent to hijackers.
Both Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge previously indicated their opposition to arming pilots.
Magaw gave no reason for his decision, which was announced in response to a question from Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the committee.
Airline pilots have been pushing for guns, saying it would allow them to confront a hijacker who breaks into the cockpit. Hijackers took over four commercial airlines on Sept. 11, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
Flight attendants, meanwhile, have advocated nonlethal weapons, such as stun guns, that they could use in emergencies.
Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., who chairs the Commerce Committee, said guns would not be needed as long as pilots kept cockpit doors locked while in flight.
"You can put the rule in right now and cut out all the argument about pistols and stun guns," Hollings said.
Opponents of arming pilots have said reinforced cockpit doors now required on all planes mean that pistols are unnecessary. They have also expressed concern that an errant shot might hit a passenger or damage a key electrical system on the plane.
Two House Republicans have introduced legislation to arm pilots and the House Transportation Committee is scheduled to take up the bill this week.
Hell Yeah.
I don't know what the President has to do with this,
Quote of the day. - #347 posted by iconoclast
I think that you are taking my remarks out of context. In later posts, I stated that the President has everything to do with setting the policy. I was simply remarking about Mineta and Ridge's comments on the record; that the comments were made by Mineta and Ridge, because there was an inference that it was Bush saying (as in a direct quote) "No guns.". Again, I conceded that he should be setting the policy and, indeed, if this is his policy that I was disappointed.
-- "IF"? -- Only disappointed? - You bush apologists, to be sure, haven't had much time to learn the fine 'bold' art of backpedaling, but enough is enough.
Decisions such as this are made with the FULL concurrence of all levels, -- and the buck stops at dubyas desk.
Hey, what can I say, I don't get it perfect everytime. No one does!
Yep, 'mistakes are made'. We heard a lot of that with the last administration, didn't we?
There will be NO compromise here; It's five bucks, one way or another. As good as your information is, it has no bearing on the outcome of MY bet, hard as that is for some to fathom !
The test takes place in whatever model plane is getting hijacked at the moment -- and I get to try ALL the doors . . .
;^)
Sure you're going to open it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.