Rant

Are Pilots Losing Their Gun Rights?

Posted 35 months ago|3 comments|483 views

VIDEOS

TAGS

gun , pilot , airline , news , weird

EXTERNAL LINKS

http://www.washingtontimes.com...  FLAG THIS LINK
http://archive.newsmax.com/arc...  FLAG THIS LINK
http://usgovinfo.about.com/lib...  FLAG THIS LINK

Written by

Chris D
Seattle, WA

Today, an alarming editorial from the Washington Times suggested that President Obama was "risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology."

Sounds serious, doesn't it?

But if you take a breath and examine the editorial, you'll find a lot of weasel words: "defenseless," "anti-gun," terrorist." The fact that the Unification Church, a noted cult, founded and currently backs the Washington Times doesn’t help its credibility, either.

Let's look at the facts. In 2002, Congress decided to allow commercial pilots to carry firearms, despite initial resistance from both the Bush administration and some airline companies.

But even though it became legal, not many pilots signed up for target practice. According to a BBC article, only 46 pilots showed up for the first training group. This was after Republican senators had predicted that 30,000 pilots would be armed by 2007.

It's hard to find statistics online, but I estimate about 1-3 percent of pilots have completed the training and may have guns in the cockpit. According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, more than 87,000 flights are in the skies in the United States on any given day. One-third, or 29,000 are commercial carriers. The odds that your plane’s pilot is packing heat? Extremely low.

My opinion? I think the editorial says some federal training funds are going to be redirected for supervisory roles. And since the pilot-arming program isn't getting much use, I don't think there's any indication our 2nd Amendment rights are in jeopardy quite yet. (As of this posting, the Obama administration hasn't commented on the editorial.)

EMAIL|FLAG THIS POST

To:

From:

COMMENTS

3 comments|ADD A COMMENT|JUMP TO MOST RECENT

Coloranter Raver
Denver, CO

35 months ago: It's impossible to think that arming some pilots has any effect. Unless they are all armed, there's no preventative point to it. No more federal funding should be spent on this silly program.

FLAG THIS COMMENT

seattlescotsman
Seattle, WA

35 months ago: I disagree. True, there might be a lot of “weasel-words” in the editorial, but how about we re-examine the facts:

There are, according to a recent article in USA Today, somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000--the exact number cannot be disclosed for security reasons--federal Air Marshals (source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-12-air-marshals_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip).

Out of 29,000 commercial flights on a given day, that means the chances of having a federal air marshal on board are not very high. On the other hand, out of the 90,000 eligible pilots and crewmembers, about 10% are participating in this program (source: http://www.theaviationnation.com/2008/04/02/pistol-packing-pilots-say-tsa-program-is-flawed/). In terms of security, that significantly increases that chance that someone who is armed and has been trained specifically to deal with the situation would be on a flight, should a hijacking be attempted.

Also, in terms of money, the program is not costing very much in comparison to, say, the Air Marshal Service. As of 2009, the Air Marshal Service was costing the US $786 million annually (source: USA Today article). The pilot program, on the other hand, has cost $25 million each year since its inception in 2003. The budget hasn't raised, even though more and more pilots sign up each year (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012301529.html).

Every time we get on a plane, we're placing our lives in the pilots' hands, whether they're armed or not. So why would we choose to disarm them? If anything, I think we should do more to support this program, and drop funding to the Air Marshal Service.

FLAG THIS COMMENT

rowdy01

35 months ago: Let pilots be pilots and fly the planes and let the real police-(Air Marshals)take care of the security. If Pilots want to be cops, go out and get hired as one! Until then focus on flying the plane only!!! If anything, the Air Marshal budget should be increased and more trained agents hired!

FLAG THIS COMMENT