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House Overwhelmingly OKs Guns for Pilots
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
House Overwhelmingly OKs Guns for Pilots
July 10, 2002, 4:57 PM EDT
Washington -- Airline pilots could carry guns in the cockpit under an anti-terror bill the House passed overwhelmingly Wednesday despite the opposition of the White House.
The legislation, approved by a vote of 310-113, would allow guns for more than 70,000 pilots if they agreed to undergo training. Lawmakers stripped out provisions limiting the program to some 1,400 pilots, about 2 percent of those flying.
Despite the strong House support, prospects in the Senate were not good for the legislation. Besides the White House, those opposing it include Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat who heads the Senate Commerce Committee.
The guns-in-cockpits question is among a host of aviation security issues that arose after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In this case, House GOP leaders have been at odds with the administration, which has repeatedly argued that cockpit crews should focus on flying planes and let air marshals worry about security.
Though Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Transportation Committee agreed to arm only a fraction of the pilots, rank-and-file lawmakers voted to expand the program to any pilot who volunteers.
"If there is a credible threat that requires arming pilots, why would you restrict yourself?" said an amendment sponsor, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). "Having that minuscule number of pilots trained and armed would not make any sense. If the pilots should be armed, there should be some significant number."
The measure also would require more self-defense training for flight attendants and give the Transportation Security Administration 90 days to act on an airline's request to equip pilots and flight attendants with non-lethal weapons such as stun guns.
"Today, armed F-16s are prepared to shoot down any commercial jet that is hijacked by terrorists," said Transportation Committee chairman Don Young (R-Alaska). "It is imperative that under these new circumstances, we must allow trained and qualified pilots to serve as the last line of defense against such a potential disaster."
Opponents of the legislation have expressed concern that an errant bullet could kill a passenger or knock out a critical electrical system.
A flight attendants union also opposed arming pilots.
"Giving guns to pilots without specific cabin defense requirements for airlines could be deadly for flight attendants and passengers," Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said last month.
TSA head John Magaw, who announced the administration's position against guns in cockpits, has said that a pilot should give undivided attention to flying his plane, landing it as quickly as possible and conducting in-flight maneuvers to keep hijackers off balance.
Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, dismissed the administration's objections.
"Bureaucrats set the rules. We set the policy and the laws," said Mica (R-Fla.).
Pilots' unions said their members needed the guns to prevent terrorists from breaking into cockpits and commandeering airplanes, as happened last September.
The Air Line Pilots Association has contributed $764,000 to federal candidates since Jan. 1, 2001. That's more in donations than was given to candidates by any individual airline, with 85 percent of the money going to Democrats, many of whom joined the majority House Republicans in supporting the legislation.
Before the vote, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, urged its members to call lawmakers and ask them to increase the number of pilots who could carry guns.
In strengthening airline security following the attacks, lawmakers gave the decision to arm pilots to the TSA. After Magaw announced the administration's decision against guns in the cockpits, lawmakers in both houses introduced legislation to overturn that action.
Magaw said the presence of air marshals on board many flights and the use of reinforced cockpit doors provide sufficient protection against terrorists.
Although passage in the House had been predicted, the legislation faced difficult obstacles on the other side of the Capitol.
Congressional aides have suggested that the measure may be offered as an amendment to a bill providing money for the Transportation Department, because Hollings' opposition is enough under Senate rules to keep the armed-pilots bill from coming up for a vote.
"A freestanding bill is not the only way to pass something in the Senate," said Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.).
Copyright c 2002, Newsday, Inc.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usguns0711.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
"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
July 10, 2002, 4:57 PM EDT
Washington -- Airline pilots could carry guns in the cockpit under an anti-terror bill the House passed overwhelmingly Wednesday despite the opposition of the White House.
The legislation, approved by a vote of 310-113, would allow guns for more than 70,000 pilots if they agreed to undergo training. Lawmakers stripped out provisions limiting the program to some 1,400 pilots, about 2 percent of those flying.
Despite the strong House support, prospects in the Senate were not good for the legislation. Besides the White House, those opposing it include Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat who heads the Senate Commerce Committee.
The guns-in-cockpits question is among a host of aviation security issues that arose after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In this case, House GOP leaders have been at odds with the administration, which has repeatedly argued that cockpit crews should focus on flying planes and let air marshals worry about security.
Though Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Transportation Committee agreed to arm only a fraction of the pilots, rank-and-file lawmakers voted to expand the program to any pilot who volunteers.
"If there is a credible threat that requires arming pilots, why would you restrict yourself?" said an amendment sponsor, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). "Having that minuscule number of pilots trained and armed would not make any sense. If the pilots should be armed, there should be some significant number."
The measure also would require more self-defense training for flight attendants and give the Transportation Security Administration 90 days to act on an airline's request to equip pilots and flight attendants with non-lethal weapons such as stun guns.
"Today, armed F-16s are prepared to shoot down any commercial jet that is hijacked by terrorists," said Transportation Committee chairman Don Young (R-Alaska). "It is imperative that under these new circumstances, we must allow trained and qualified pilots to serve as the last line of defense against such a potential disaster."
Opponents of the legislation have expressed concern that an errant bullet could kill a passenger or knock out a critical electrical system.
A flight attendants union also opposed arming pilots.
"Giving guns to pilots without specific cabin defense requirements for airlines could be deadly for flight attendants and passengers," Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said last month.
TSA head John Magaw, who announced the administration's position against guns in cockpits, has said that a pilot should give undivided attention to flying his plane, landing it as quickly as possible and conducting in-flight maneuvers to keep hijackers off balance.
Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, dismissed the administration's objections.
"Bureaucrats set the rules. We set the policy and the laws," said Mica (R-Fla.).
Pilots' unions said their members needed the guns to prevent terrorists from breaking into cockpits and commandeering airplanes, as happened last September.
The Air Line Pilots Association has contributed $764,000 to federal candidates since Jan. 1, 2001. That's more in donations than was given to candidates by any individual airline, with 85 percent of the money going to Democrats, many of whom joined the majority House Republicans in supporting the legislation.
Before the vote, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, urged its members to call lawmakers and ask them to increase the number of pilots who could carry guns.
In strengthening airline security following the attacks, lawmakers gave the decision to arm pilots to the TSA. After Magaw announced the administration's decision against guns in the cockpits, lawmakers in both houses introduced legislation to overturn that action.
Magaw said the presence of air marshals on board many flights and the use of reinforced cockpit doors provide sufficient protection against terrorists.
Although passage in the House had been predicted, the legislation faced difficult obstacles on the other side of the Capitol.
Congressional aides have suggested that the measure may be offered as an amendment to a bill providing money for the Transportation Department, because Hollings' opposition is enough under Senate rules to keep the armed-pilots bill from coming up for a vote.
"A freestanding bill is not the only way to pass something in the Senate," said Sen. Robert Smith (R-N.H.).
Copyright c 2002, Newsday, Inc.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usguns0711.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
"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 Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
July 09, 2002
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - The House of Representatives will consider legislation this week to force transportation security officials to begin arming commercial airline pilots. But supporters of guns in the cockpit say the bill is too weak to have any deterrent effect on terrorists and other potential hijackers.
The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act purports to authorize "flight deck officers" on commercial airlines to carry firearms and to use force, including lethal force, when they judge the security of an aircraft is at risk.
The bill is cosponsored by House Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and House Aviation Subcommittee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.), and has 54 additional cosponsors.
The measure is a direct response to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Undersecretary for Transportation Security John Magaw's decision not to arm pilots under a discretionary provision in the law that created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
"After a lot of consultation and realizing my experience in law enforcement, I will not authorize firearms in the cockpit," Magaw - who is the former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, as well as the U.S. Secret Service - told the Senate Commerce Committee May 21.
The Young-Mica bill would require Magaw to establish a program to deputize qualified volunteer pilots of passenger aircraft as federal flight deck officers and to provide training, supervision, and equipment for those officers, according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service.
But the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance (APSA), a group of pilots from all of the major airlines and pilots' unions, say the bill is flawed.
"It doesn't address the fundamental problem that we have in the existing law," said Capt. Tracy Price, chairman of APSA. "That fundamental problem is, it gives complete control over the structure of the armed pilots program and the decision as to whether pilots will be armed ultimately back to the TSA."
Price says there are four major deficiencies in the legislation, beginning with the lack of a deadline to begin arming pilots and a cap of only two percent of pilots being allowed to participate in the program.
"Ninety-eight percent of the flights would be completely unprotected and that would offer no deterrent at all against future terrorist attacks," he explained. "We think the number needs to be changed from two percent maximum to 20 percent minimum, and we think he needs to have those 20 percent minimum armed within six months."
Utilizing the existing FBI Cockpit Protection Program, Price believes that number of pilots could easily be trained within a six-month period.
APSA also opposes a provision in the Young-Mica bill that would restrict participation in the program to pilots with prior military or law enforcement experience. That would eliminate approximately 40 percent of the current pilot force, he said, again reducing the deterrent effect.
Not to mention, those pilots could also potentially skew the results of the initial evaluation of the program's safety and effectiveness.
The final flaw APSA finds with the bill again involves Magaw.
"At the end of the program, we need to have the president decide, not a mid-level bureaucrat that is trying to build an empire. That's what John Magaw is over at TSA," Price argued. "He's trying to build an empire of Federal Air Marshals and having armed pilots reduces the demand for the growth of his empire."
Price says he spoke with staff members handling the bill in Mica's office Monday morning.
"They're not saying 'no.' They're not saying they are opposed," he said. "They seem to want to do this. They don't disagree with us at all."
Opposition to the bill, according to Price, is limited.
"There's really only three groups: The TSA, the airlines, and terrorists," he claimed. "The TSA should rethink their position, as should the airlines, when they find themselves on the same sheet of music as the terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on September 11th."
In an attempt to address the concerns of the airlines, both House and Senate versions of the proposal include liability waivers, exempting the airlines and armed pilots from lawsuits in state and federal courts under almost all circumstances.
Only pilots could be held liable, and only if they show "gross negligence" or "willful disregard" for the safety of passengers or fellow crewmembers.
The bill will be considered by the full House as early as Wednesday. All of the suggestions Price made for changes to the bill could be offered as floor amendments at that time.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200207\NAT20020709a.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
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(Wednesday, July 10, 2002) -- Today, the House of Representatives passed the armed pilots bill with over 300 congressmen voting in favor of the bill.
Especially gratifying is the fact that the House removed many of the horrendous provisions that were added in the Transportation Committee. As passed by the House, H.R. 4635 opens the door for ANY PILOT to carry a firearm in the cockpit (not just two percent of the pilots). Moreover, the two-year "test" period has been removed from the bill, which means that once pilots start carrying guns, they will not be stripped of their side arms by anti-gun bureaucrats at a later date.
The battle now moves to the Senate, where Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) is looking for an opportunity to offer his bill, S. 2554 -- a bill which is still superior to the House passed bill. Stay tuned for more details from GOA
http://www.gunowners.org/a071002.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