Baha, to you and mrs: "We want that individual to focus on being a pilot, not a law enforcement officer," Mr. Collenette said -I say this: I feel sorry for you or your family if you are ever on a commercial flight and terrorists with box cutters take it over and want to crash it and they end up stabbing your pilots to death, but if they had a gun the pilots could have shot them dead. (ofcourse i hope this never happens to you but you get my point) bring on the firepower, 9/11- NEVER AGAIN Joe Bahadir Acuner <bahadiracuner@yahoo.com> wrote:Why do I love Canada more and more??? I guess it's true that Canada is Soviet Canakistan as Buchanan called it :) BAHA ACUNER - CFI,CFII,MEI Fan of flying in a non weapon cockpit www.bahadiracuner.com -----Original Message----- From: The Airline List [mailto:AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU]On Behalf Of Roger James Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 11:03 AM To: AIRLINE@LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU Subject: No guns for our airline pilots ...... No guns for our airline pilots ...Collenette firmly shoots down idea of arming crews to deter terrorists Glen McGregor The Ottawa Citizen Tuesday, December 03, 2002 Transport Minister David Collenette yesterday doused any possibility of arming Canadian airline pilots and said he is concerned about U.S. pilots flying into Canada carrying guns. Under a law that came into force last month, American pilots will be allowed to carry firearms in the cockpit on a voluntary basis, once they are properly trained and certified. The rule also applies to international routes, which means pilots could be armed on flights arriving in Canada from the U.S. But Mr. Collenette says that there are "cultural differences" between the U.S. and Canada over guns and says he stands "totally opposed" to putting pistols in pilots' hands. "We want that individual to focus on being a pilot, not a law enforcement officer," Mr. Collenette said during testimony before a Senate committee studying airline security. "What's the next step, arming bus drivers, subway drivers, taxi drivers? Pretty soon we're going to end up with a firearms regime very much like our American friends. I would say we have a better society here because we have stricter gun enforcement laws." But Mr. Collenette will have to address the topic in discussions with counterparts in the U.S. administration because of the border issues the new law creates. Currently, peace officers from the U.S. -- including the undercover air marshals -- can carry weapons into Canada under a memo-of-understanding, but Mr. Collenette said he does not consider pilots to be peace officers. He says Transport Canada will have to negotiate an agreement with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which will run the program. "We cannot prevent U.S. carriers from having pilots that are armed flying over Canada or to Canada," he said. "But the moment that plane lands on Canadian soil, the plane and crew are subject to Canadian law." But the lobby group that led the drive to arm pilots in the U.S. says it believes that pilots could be included under existing agreements because the pilots who volunteer for the program will become deputized as federal flight deck officers under the same jurisdiction as air marshals. "We would anticipate the same sort of requirements for our federal air marshals would apply to our pilots as well," said Capt. Marc Feigenblatt of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance. Provisions could also be made to have the pilots stow their weapons either in an airport armoury or in a locked safe in the aircraft, as air marshals currently do in some countries, Capt. Feigenblatt said. The pilots will likely be carrying heavy artillery when they come: There are two weapons under consideration for use -- the SigSauer P229, a .357 pistol currently used by air marshals, and the Glock 23, a .40 calibre pistol popular in police forces. Capt. Feigenblatt estimates as many as 60 per cent of all U.S. pilots will volunteer for the program. With two pilots flying most aircraft, that percentage will put a gun in every cockpit on average. The level of support appears weaker among Canadian aviators. The Air Canada Pilots Association recently polled its members and found that a majority did not want guns. But many felt they would like to have the option of carrying non-lethal weapons such as Tasers, which discharge an incapacitating but harmless electric shock. The union would prefer to see a double-door system installed in cockpits to keep intruders out. The other major pilots union, the Canadian wing of the Air Line Pilots Association, is also lukewarm to the idea. "In Canada we don't feel this is an issue culturally, nor security-wise is it a requirement," said ALPA's Art Laflamme. "It's not something we're pursuing right now." In his testimony to the Senate committee on National Security and Defence, Mr. Collenette noted that he had also shown similarly strong opposition to the idea of Canadian air marshals program in the weeks following the terrorist strikes on the U.S. But Canada was forced by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to start putting armed RCMP officers on flights into Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and the program was later expanded to other select international and domestic flights originating in Canada. "In a civil society, surely we should be ensuring the security is tough so (terrorists) don't get on planes and objects don't get stowed and the cockpit is secure," he said yesterday. 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