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Flight Attendants Back Pilot Gun Bill in Senate
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Flight Attendants Back Pilot Gun Bill in Senate
WASHINGTON - (Reuters) - Flight attendants joined pilots on Thursday in calling for flight deck crews to be allowed to carry firearms to prevent attacks like the Sept. 11 hijackings, a position opposed by the Bush administration.
Flight attendants have long objected to such a measure because previous proposals included little or no plans to help them defend the passenger cabin in the event of a hijacking.
But the nation's largest flight attendants union put its support behind bipartisan legislation proposed in the Senate to let pilots carry firearms on a voluntary basis.
The bill also proposes a self-defense training program for flight attendants that exceeds what airlines and the government currently require.
"This bill provides a comprehensive defensive strategy for the entire aircraft," said Patricia Friend, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
"It gives flight attendants the training and tools to protect ourselves, our passengers, and to possibly stop a hijacker before he reaches the cockpit," Friend said.
The proposal by Republicans senators, including Robert Smith of New Hampshire and Conrad Burns of Montana, and Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, would provide classroom and hands-on self-defense training for flight attendants.
It also would mandate hands-free wireless communication devices in the aircraft cabin. They would allow flight attendants to easily and quickly alert pilots to any emergency. It also calls for a study on equipping the passenger cabin with nonlethal weapons, like stun guns.
Additionally, the bill would allow pilots to carry guns in the cockpit on a voluntary basis, something thousands of pilots have petitioned the Bush administration to let them do.
But the Transportation Department said this week it would not permit airlines to arm their pilots with lethal force, saying current security upgrades and air marshals were sufficient for protecting the plane.
The industry agreed with transportation security planners, but key Republicans in Congress said they would work to overturn that decision.
Consideration by the House Transportation Committee of legislation to arm pilots was put off on Thursday until after Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess in early June. That bill currently has no provision to aid flight attendants and no Democratic co-sponsors.
The AFA represents 50,000 flight attendants at 26 airlines. http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/3324454.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
WASHINGTON - (Reuters) - Flight attendants joined pilots on Thursday in calling for flight deck crews to be allowed to carry firearms to prevent attacks like the Sept. 11 hijackings, a position opposed by the Bush administration.
Flight attendants have long objected to such a measure because previous proposals included little or no plans to help them defend the passenger cabin in the event of a hijacking.
But the nation's largest flight attendants union put its support behind bipartisan legislation proposed in the Senate to let pilots carry firearms on a voluntary basis.
The bill also proposes a self-defense training program for flight attendants that exceeds what airlines and the government currently require.
"This bill provides a comprehensive defensive strategy for the entire aircraft," said Patricia Friend, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants.
"It gives flight attendants the training and tools to protect ourselves, our passengers, and to possibly stop a hijacker before he reaches the cockpit," Friend said.
The proposal by Republicans senators, including Robert Smith of New Hampshire and Conrad Burns of Montana, and Democratic Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, would provide classroom and hands-on self-defense training for flight attendants.
It also would mandate hands-free wireless communication devices in the aircraft cabin. They would allow flight attendants to easily and quickly alert pilots to any emergency. It also calls for a study on equipping the passenger cabin with nonlethal weapons, like stun guns.
Additionally, the bill would allow pilots to carry guns in the cockpit on a voluntary basis, something thousands of pilots have petitioned the Bush administration to let them do.
But the Transportation Department said this week it would not permit airlines to arm their pilots with lethal force, saying current security upgrades and air marshals were sufficient for protecting the plane.
The industry agreed with transportation security planners, but key Republicans in Congress said they would work to overturn that decision.
Consideration by the House Transportation Committee of legislation to arm pilots was put off on Thursday until after Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess in early June. That bill currently has no provision to aid flight attendants and no Democratic co-sponsors.
The AFA represents 50,000 flight attendants at 26 airlines. http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/3324454.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
By Brad Keena
CNSNews.com Commentary
May 24, 2002
I have a nagging question about flying, safety, and terrorism that I have been asking of late. Based on a simple hypothesis, my question, unfortunately, may have become a moot point.
This week the U.S. Department of Transportation formally denied U.S. airline pilots permission to carry guns in the cockpit.
"I will not authorize firearms in the cockpit," transportation security chief John Magaw told a Senate panel. Magaw, of course, reports to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, a Democrat added to Bush's Cabinet last year as an olive branch to the party that now accuses the President of all but causing the events of September 11.
["We know there were numerous warnings of the events to come on September 11th," Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) told a radio audience. "Persons close to this administration are poised to make huge profits off America's new war," McKinney said, adding, "Who else knew, and why did they not warn the innocent people of New York who were needlessly murdered?"
"Right now the pieces from the CIA and FBI that we have in front of us lead us to believe [Bush] failed to protect the American people," Iowa Democratic Party chairman Sheila McGuire Riggs declared.
"I think what we have to do now is to find out what the president, what the White House knew about the events leading up to 9/11, when they knew it and, most importantly, what was done about it at that time," added House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO), in Watergate rhetoric.
Even Hillary Clinton (D-NY) jumped into the fray, standing before the Senate, holding a copy of a newspaper headlined, "Bush Knew," and publicly demanding answers from the Administration.]
So much for the olive branch.
For his part, Secretary Mineta, a former Congressman (D-CA), long ago voiced his opposition to allowing people - let alone airline pilots - to arm themselves.
"He expressed his opinion on guns, in general, when he was in Congress prior to 1994, when he was an F-minus rated anti-gun leader who introduced anti-gun bills and took money from Handgun Control, Inc.," John Velleco, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America told CNSNews recently. "So we know that he's no friend of the Second Amendment."
So, let me get this straight: envisioning a kindler, gentler Washington, Bush names a Democrat to head the Department of Transportation (DOT). Soon, 9/11 happens. Pilots, Congress, and Americans urge the DOT to allow pilots to defend themselves on the job as a last chance to prevent another such tragedy. Mineta says no to guns in the cockpit. Democrats accuse Bush of complicity in 9/11. Mineta orders his Undersecretary to ban guns in the cockpit.
Now, I know pilots. I've talked with pilots. By and large they are reasonable people. They don't like to be lectured to about their jobs.
The pilots I've talked to, many of whom being ex-military and therefore being familiar with guns, combat, and confrontation, all have tried to keep cool about this. They've contained their anger when told they need to have their own bags searched (even though they're flying the plane). They've held their tongues even when told the government knows better than they do about how to fly their plane during an emergency ["Pilots need to concentrate on flying the plane," Magaw said upon issuing Mineta's decree.] And I suspect they'll even keep their cool when they realize that hiring all those federal air marshals means the captain is no longer the final authority in his own cabin.
However, I do not expect pilots to keep quiet much longer.
"Until we can ensure that hijackers . . . cannot get into the cockpit," argues Air Travelers Association president David Stempler, "there must be some lethal force to prevent them from commandeering the aircraft and doing massive damage with a huge loss of life."
That is, unless you believe the government has the bureaucratic manpower to place a federal air marshal aboard each of the 21,000 scheduled airline flights that take to the sky every day over the U.S.
Which brings me to that nagging question: if, say, American and United had similar flights, at a similar price, to the same destination, except that American allowed pilots to arm themselves and United didn't, which airline would you want take?
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=\Commentary\archive\200205\COM20020524f.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
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
May 23, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - The Law Enforcement Alliance of America, one of the nation's largest coalitions of law enforcement professionals and crime victims, announced Thursday it supports arming pilots in cockpits.
The group also criticized Undersecretary of Transportation John Magaw's announcement this week that no commercial pilots will be armed.
"Undersecretary Magaw and Transportation Secretary (Norman) Mineta need to put aside their anti-gun hysteria and listen to reason. Any security policy that culminates in allowing a military fighter jet to shoot down a jetliner full of innocent Americans certainly has room for a trained pilot armed with a handgun as an alternative," said LEAA executive director James Fotis.
Fotis added, "We know the threat to the cockpit is real and there is no excuse to keep our pilots defenseless."
Delta Air Lines said Wednesday it opposes arming pilots, preferring to use armed federal air marshals on flights instead. But LEAA doesn't think air marshals on every flight will remedy the situation.
"Major federal law enforcement agencies combined don't have enough personnel to put a sky marshal on every flight, let alone the two marshals needed for each flight," according to Fotis.
Fotis also doesn't like the latest federal government security policy that provides an air marshal for every flight in and out of Washington but leaves the rest of the nation's flights and airline passengers to chance.
"We don't trust cockpit doors or security screeners for flights in and out of the capital -- each one has a sky marshal on board. So how is it that the rest of America is supposed to trust just those measures for the flights they take?" Fotis asked.
Undersecretary of Transportation John Magaw told the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday that pilots will not be allowed to carry guns, but he didn't say why not.
House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) accused Magaw and the Bush administration of being pressured by America's major air carriers into keeping pilots unarmed during flights.
"I think there has been pretty heavy pressure from the airlines, and I think the airlines are making a big mistake," said Mica in an interview with CNSNews.com .http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200205\POL20020523c.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