In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
MAS pilots reject idea of carrying guns
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
MAS pilots reject idea of carrying guns
By CLARENCE CHUA
PETALING JAYA: Airline pilots in Malaysia have rejected a proposal by the United States that commercial pilots be allowed to carry guns into the cockpit to counter terrorism.
"To the general American psyche, they are at war. But not us. So, carrying arms for them is justified," said Capt Badrul Hisham Yusoff, acting president of the Malaysia Airlines Pilots Association.
Describing it as a "futile exercise," he said the association rejected the idea.
The US House of Representatives recently passed a Bill to allow airline pilots to arm themselves after undergoing training.
The Bill had originally called for a pilot programme covering 1,400 pilots over the next two years, but when it came to the floor, House members decided to expand it to any pilot interested in carrying a gun.
It was reported by CNN that 78% of Allied Pilots Association members, who represent 13,000 pilots at American Airlines and the former TWA, had voted in favour of arming pilots.
In a similar poll done by the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 62,000 pilots with 42 US and Canadian airlines, 73% favoured carrying weapons.
The Malaysia Airlines Pilots Association represents 85% of pilots in Malaysia.
Capt Badrul said the state of affairs in Malaysia was not conducive to implement the use of firearms as Malaysians were generally unfamiliar with the use of weapons.
"Terrorism should be fought at the airport because it would be too late if it occurs inside the aircraft,'' he said.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2002/7/17/nation/ccguns&sec=nation
"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 CLARENCE CHUA
PETALING JAYA: Airline pilots in Malaysia have rejected a proposal by the United States that commercial pilots be allowed to carry guns into the cockpit to counter terrorism.
"To the general American psyche, they are at war. But not us. So, carrying arms for them is justified," said Capt Badrul Hisham Yusoff, acting president of the Malaysia Airlines Pilots Association.
Describing it as a "futile exercise," he said the association rejected the idea.
The US House of Representatives recently passed a Bill to allow airline pilots to arm themselves after undergoing training.
The Bill had originally called for a pilot programme covering 1,400 pilots over the next two years, but when it came to the floor, House members decided to expand it to any pilot interested in carrying a gun.
It was reported by CNN that 78% of Allied Pilots Association members, who represent 13,000 pilots at American Airlines and the former TWA, had voted in favour of arming pilots.
In a similar poll done by the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 62,000 pilots with 42 US and Canadian airlines, 73% favoured carrying weapons.
The Malaysia Airlines Pilots Association represents 85% of pilots in Malaysia.
Capt Badrul said the state of affairs in Malaysia was not conducive to implement the use of firearms as Malaysians were generally unfamiliar with the use of weapons.
"Terrorism should be fought at the airport because it would be too late if it occurs inside the aircraft,'' he said.
http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2002/7/17/nation/ccguns&sec=nation
"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