Barf alert: Brady Campaign to DOT on arming pilots...

[K80Geoff]

Here is my solution:

Any Airline Pilot who is former military will be recalled to active duty without pay while working for an airline. They will be required to carry while flying and will be given mandatory training to increase their proficiency with firearms and to educate them in defending the cockpit.

Any ex military pilot has gone through weapons training while on active duty and has been screened and tested psychologically by Uncle Sam and the airline. Pilots are among the most stable individuals in our society and are generally more intelligent than the average LEO.

I would trust an airline pilot before I would trust some retired Law Enforcement type on an airliner.

Just how much training does the average LEO get with firearms anyway. Sure some go through specialized training but many are barely competent with firearms. How many super cops with SWAT type training are going to be available as skymarshals? Most skymarshals will be retired LEO. Some will be highly effective, some will not.

This is not meant to bash LEO's.

I spent many years in the Army Reserves in a unit with a high percentage of LEO's. Some were people I would trust in combat, others scared the bejesus out of me on the range. I do not want to be on an airliner with those individuals with a gun in a stessfull situation.

Handling a situation on an airliner will take a cool head and people who can handle emergencies under stress. Airline pilots are trained and tested under these conditions regularly throughout their careers.

I would trust a Pilot who goes through training on a yearly basis over a skymarshall who may or may not be competent.

I'm taking the train from now on anyway

 

[Thairlar]

I heard John Lott speak on the subject of arming pilots yesterday. Let's just say that he's got a different opinion on it than the Brady Bunch.

 

[Fly320s]

Any guesses on the percentage of pilots "illegally" carrying at the moment?

Easy... Zero, zip, nada, none.

I'm not gonna try to carry a weapon through an airport security checkpoint. That's a -go directly to jail, revoke your CHL, lose you job and your pilot's certificate- felony.

Not to mention it's just plane dumb.

I go through the same security as everyone else. I've been hand-searched (frisked), wanded, made to remove my shoes, and had my bags sniffed for explosives.

As I much as I think we pilots should be allowed to carry guns, I'm not doing it until it's legal and approved by my employer.

 

[Bog]

No bet then

Fly328s...

So what you're basically telling me is that since 9/11, pilots are being treated with the same level of suspicion as passengers?

I'd feel better about that if the security measures were working in the first place, but I keep seeing news articles about huge amounts of hardware slipping through the cracks.

Open question: To whom does one write to actually complain about this sort of thing? Don't get me wrong, I can see the need to at least appear to enhance security - but given that my life is in a pilot's hands already, I'm far rather that they had the ability to defend their place of work from Abulla the Brick-Seeking Guidance Package.

 

[kidcoltoutlaw]

this is a must see

this is the way it is.i can't rember where i found it buy it tell's it like it is.you have to see this

 

[Fly320s]

Bog,

Yep, everyone gets the same treatment.

Unless... (you knew this was coming)

You are one of the chosen people who has the magic badge. I've seen the security screeners walk through metal detectors with their personal bags without being searched. The local police are exempted from being searched. The National Guard soldiers are exempted from being searched. Some airline employees are allowed to by-pass security as they take checked baggage to the airplanes.

All of those people have had the requisite background check that proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are incapable of committing a crime or being duped into committing a crime; such as smuggling drugs onto an airplane. Yeah, right.

Did you hear about the USAirways captain who was arrested at some airport for making inappropriate comments at the security checkpoint? His comment was something to the affect of 'go ahead and take my tweezers. I'm the pilot. If I want to crash this plane, I will.' Well, that didn't sit too well with security, so he was detained and eventually arrested.

So, yes, we pilots get the same treatment as everyone else. Which I think is appropriate, even if there are obvious flaws in the system.

 

[illuminatus99]

lol, airline pilots are competent enough individuals to fly a multimillion dollar piece of machinery with the lives of their passengers on the line and must account for rough conditions but still pull off near perfect landings but are not competent enough to determine who needs to be shot in a terrorist situation?????

most commercial pilots are ex military, it's not like carrying a gun is anything new to them.

 

[OF]

The gun grabbers are getting more and more desperate. The more desperate they get the crazier they sound. They crazier they sound the more fence-sitters are clueing in. And that is what turns the tide.

Keep yapping, Sarah. Keep yapping. If you think about it, she could easily be crazy enough soon to be an asset. I mean, the soccer mom's do not listen to anything we say. They do listen to Sarah. If Sarah is sooooo insane that even the Commie Mommies start to look sideways at her....hmmmmm...

I'm not sending money to HCI yet, but there's an idea in there somewhere...


- Gabe

 

[John G]

armed victims vs. sheep

Yeah, they make a good point. These killings seem to take place in schools, planes, "gun-free workplaces", etc. I wonder why nobody targets hunting lodges, police stations, or gun shops? I also wonder why we herd and eat pigs and cows instead of wolverines and sharks. hopefully, some liberal group will form to tell me what to think.