At 04:07 PM 5/21/2002 +0000, David Ross wrote: >I hope the airline pilots go on strike over this. Norm Mineta and his >cronies need to be fired! Right, because whatever airline pilots want, they should have? I don't think so! > > "Pilots need to concentrate on flying the plane," Magaw said later in the > > hearing. Specially trained air marshals should be the only armed > officers on > > board, he added. > >The odds of having an air marshall on any given flight are very small - >possibly less than 1% That's OK. The odds of needing a gun are even less! :-) (That was a joke -- I know that the implication is that the odds of having an air marshal on board when a gun would be needed remains at 1% -- unless one postulates that they somehow "know" which flights need air marshals on board. I still maintain that arming pilots is a disproportionate response to a minimal threat that will cause more problems than it solves, just like arming citizens tends to do.) > > Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., a co-sponsor of legislation to arm pilots, > asked > > Magaw to reconsider his opposition. > >What do you mean, "ask?" Senator Burns, you are the boss of these idiots, >don't ask, demand. Have you checked the US Constitution lately? A Senator (or a Representative) has no authority to demand anything of the Executive Branch. "Ask" is the correct thing to do, although this will start to resemble a scene from "A Few Good Men." > > 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. > >Bullshit! Oh, eloquently put! But would you care to elaborate on this so that those of us who aren't panicking at the thought of unarmed pilots might better understand why you're flying off at the handle about this? How many homeowners are wounded or killed by their own weapons when a criminal overpowers them after the pick up the weapon? How much training are we going to give these pilots so they won't be overpowered by the passengers they feel threatened by? At what cost, both in time and training costs? Hollins is a jerk for lots of reasons, but opposing guns on planes isn't one of them. >David Ross Calmly, Nick