[supercat]

No more terrorist attacks like those experienced on September 11th will occur. This sentiment is merely wishful thinking and cannot be substantiated. In fact, the intelligence community and the TSA strongly indicate that the threat to aviation is still very high.

Actually, it's not just wishful thinking. The terrorists' real weapon on 9/11 was the attitude of acquiescence toward criminals in general, hijackers in particular, which was included in flight crew training and the public conciousness. That weapon is now gone, and it will be at least a decade before terrorists get it back, if they ever do.

[Crowcreek]

"The terrorists' real weapon on 9/11 was the attitude of acquiescence"

Another knife-fighting expert . . .

[steve-b]

While it's true that passengers are more likely to fight hijackers, that's no reason to reject the additional line of defense created by arming the pilots.

For that matter, the passenger line of defense could be bolstered at trivial cost by putting a nice solid blackjack in each seat-back pocket.