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GOA Blasts Transportation Department
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
GOA Blasts Transportation Department For Refusing To Arm Pilots
-- Says decision comes out of "Al Gore's playbook"
For Immediate Release
May 21 2002
Contact: Tim Stone
703-321-8585
(Springfield, VA) -- Gun Owners of America today blasted the Transportation Department, and Undersecretary John Magaw in particular, for its refusal to allow pilots to carry firearms in airplane cockpits.
"The administration has just given the American people the 'middle finger,'" said GOA Director of Communications Erich Pratt. "A majority of the American people support arming pilots. A majority of pilots support it, as does the U.S. Congress which last year passed legislation allowing pilots to be armed."
"But now the administration says that they know best how to keep passengers safe on board -- despite the fact that air marshals are not present on most flights and despite the fact that weapons still continue to slip by airport screeners," Pratt said.
Speaking for the administration, Undersecretary Magaw said that pilots need to just focus on flying the plane.
"Of course, pilots can't fly the plane if someone is crashing through the cockpit door," Pratt said. "Pilots have admitted the cockpit door does not stay closed the entire flight as they must inevitably make use of the bathroom."
Unfortunately, many gun owners feared this decision because of the anti-gun sentiments of those who are entrusted with implementing the law to arm pilots. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was an "F-" rated congressman when he was in office; and Undersecretary John Magaw was equally prejudicial against the rights of gun owners when he was the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"This decision comes right out of Al Gore's playbook," Pratt said. "This is not what the American people elected George Bush to do. He had better take some officials to the political woodshed, or else people are going to start wondering where he stands on the important right of self-defense," Pratt said.
Erich Pratt is the Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America, a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members located at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151.
Erich Pratt is available for press interviews.
http://www.gunowners.org/pr0209.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
-- Says decision comes out of "Al Gore's playbook"
For Immediate Release
May 21 2002
Contact: Tim Stone
703-321-8585
(Springfield, VA) -- Gun Owners of America today blasted the Transportation Department, and Undersecretary John Magaw in particular, for its refusal to allow pilots to carry firearms in airplane cockpits.
"The administration has just given the American people the 'middle finger,'" said GOA Director of Communications Erich Pratt. "A majority of the American people support arming pilots. A majority of pilots support it, as does the U.S. Congress which last year passed legislation allowing pilots to be armed."
"But now the administration says that they know best how to keep passengers safe on board -- despite the fact that air marshals are not present on most flights and despite the fact that weapons still continue to slip by airport screeners," Pratt said.
Speaking for the administration, Undersecretary Magaw said that pilots need to just focus on flying the plane.
"Of course, pilots can't fly the plane if someone is crashing through the cockpit door," Pratt said. "Pilots have admitted the cockpit door does not stay closed the entire flight as they must inevitably make use of the bathroom."
Unfortunately, many gun owners feared this decision because of the anti-gun sentiments of those who are entrusted with implementing the law to arm pilots. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta was an "F-" rated congressman when he was in office; and Undersecretary John Magaw was equally prejudicial against the rights of gun owners when he was the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
"This decision comes right out of Al Gore's playbook," Pratt said. "This is not what the American people elected George Bush to do. He had better take some officials to the political woodshed, or else people are going to start wondering where he stands on the important right of self-defense," Pratt said.
Erich Pratt is the Director of Communications for Gun Owners of America, a national gun lobby with over 300,000 members located at 8001 Forbes Place, Springfield, VA 22151.
Erich Pratt is available for press interviews.
http://www.gunowners.org/pr0209.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
May 26, 2002 Posted: 9:08 AM EDT (1308 GMT)
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- National Guard troops patrolling Pennsylvania airports for more than seven months after the September 11 terrorist attacks were carrying unloaded weapons, a newspaper reported Sunday.
At 16 airports across the state, the troops were banned from patrolling with loaded weapons, according to guardsmen interviewed by The Philadelphia Inquirer for Sunday editions.
Instead, the guardsmen carried loaded magazines on their belts, the paper said.
"I don't mind being in harm's way, but let me react," said Staff Sgt. Bill Lawrence, 39, who was stationed at Philadelphia International Airport until the guardsmen left May 10.
With the seconds it would take to remove the magazine from their belt and insert it into the pistol, "we couldn't protect ourselves," Lawrence said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Military and Veterans Affairs declined to comment on whether the state's National Guard troops carried loaded or unloaded weapons.
"We are not going to confirm specific rules of engagement because our soldiers could be back in the airports," spokesman John Maietta said.
But Lawrence and three other guardsmen, one of whom asked that his name not be used, talked to the paper about the airport mission.
They emphasized that none of the soldiers at the Philadelphia airport ever needed to pull their weapons -- but if National Guard troops are sent to patrol airports again, they do not want the guardsmen to be in the same position.
"It seemed like (National Guard officials) were betting nothing would happen," said Staff Sgt. Rich Scaricaciottoli. "But I wouldn't take that as a precedent for what's going to happen next time."
When they questioned their command, the response was, "We don't want any John Waynes," the paper said. But, Lawrence said, "the people who made these decisions about rules of engagement didn't have to stand at the checkpoints."
In New York, a National Guard spokesman confirmed that the M-16 rifles carried by soldiers there also had no bullets in them.
"If need be, and thankfully there was no cause for this, the weapon could have been rapidly loaded," said Scott Sandman, a spokesman for the New York division of Military and Naval Affairs.
Maietta and a U.S. Department of Defense spokesman emphasized that the Federal Aviation Administration, not the National Guard, was in charge of providing airport security.
In addition, working alongside guardsmen in each state were professionally trained law-enforcement officers with loaded weapons, state troopers and airport police in Philadelphia and Port Authority police in New York, officials said.
On September 27, President Bush asked all governors to deploy National Guard troops to airports within their states, with salaries paid by the federal government.
The paper surveyed 19 states with the nation's busiest airports. Besides Pennsylvania and New York, a dozen states said their soldiers carried loaded weapons, and seven declined comment.
In Georgia, National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Driscoll ridiculed the idea of his state's soldiers carrying unloaded weapons.
"We're not like Barney Fife, who carries one bullet in our pocket. The gun is only effective if you can use it," he said.
"It would defeat the purpose of putting them there," agreed Maj. Drew Sullings, spokesman for Maryland's National Guard. "What if something happened and they needed to defend people, to defend themselves?"
Phil Anderson, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the use of unloaded guns raises the question of whether the National Guard is the appropriate military force to be deployed at airports.
But Lawrence Korb of the Council on Foreign Relations said the National Guard had achieved its mission by "calming people down and giving them the assurance that we were doing something."
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/05/26/rec.national.guard.ap/index.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Congress may override the White House and allow airline pilots to carry guns
First published: Saturday, May 25, 2002
Despite the wise decision by the Bush administration not to allow airline pilots to carry firearms, the issue is far from resolved. Already there is a movement in Congress to allow pilots to be armed, and a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association vows that "the battle up on the Hill has really just begun.''
But it's the wrong battle at the wrong time, and Congress should be responsible enough to say so. There are ample measures that can be taken to improve airline security. But giving pilots guns would introduce new risks to aircraft safety, despite the good intentions of the pilots' unions.
One of those risks is the chance that a bullet might strike instruments or electrical systems and thereby disable the aircraft and seal its doom. The pilots insist that such a risk is no greater than that posed by federal air marshals, who are authorized to carry weapons on board. And, the pilots add, they would be willing to undertake firearms training equivalent to that for air marshals.
But the comparison isn't that simple. Air marshals are charged with preventing hijackers from ever entering the cockpit. The pilots, by contrast, would draw their arms if and when a hijacker had made it to the cockpit -- a tense situation that carries with it the potential for a rapid-fire encounter and stray shots.
Indeed, John W. Magaw, the Bush administration's transportation security chief, made just this distinction Tuesday when he noted that air marshals would be better suited to defend against hijackers, while pilots "really need to be in control of the aircraft.''
To be sure, not all flights have air marshals on board. In fact, the public has no idea which flights marshals take, and which are unguarded. But in either case, no pilot should have to do double duty as an air marshal.
The better way to improve airline security is to follow through with plans to reinforce cockpit doors to prevent unauthorized entry and, above all, to improve screening procedures on the ground to prevent weapons of any kind from getting through.
As an added precaution, Mr. Magaw should allow pilots to be armed with nonlethal stun guns. These weapons are effective in disabling would-be attackers, without running the risk of damage to critical navigational systems that guns present. Indeed, all airline crew members, including attendants, should be allowed to carry some form of protection, such as Mace, pepper spray or stun guns, to ward off unruly and potentially dangerous passengers. A combination of these security measures should more than make up for keeping guns out of pilots' hands. http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyKey=83565&BCCode=OPIN&newsdate=5/25/2002
Respond to story at http://timesunion.com/forms/contactus.asp
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878