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Senate Panel Cleared to Vote on Arming Pilots
Josey1
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Senate Panel Cleared to Vote on Arming Pilots
July 31, 2002 04:32 PM ET Email this article Printer friendly version
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of arming U.S. airline pilots said on Wednesday that prospects were brighter for getting legislation passed this year after the idea's chief opponent in the Senate said he would allow a committee vote.
A spokesman for Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, one of the chief co-sponsors of a plan to arm pilots, said he would push for committee action in September, after the chamber returns from its summer recess, with the hope of getting the entire Senate to approve the measure soon afterward.
"We intend to ask for a markup (committee) hearing in September. Our feeling is that this is going to pass easily out of committee and survive a vote on the floor," said Eric Bovim, Burns' spokesman.
South Carolina Democrat Ernest Hollings, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee through which the pilot-arming proposal must pass, removed a potential obstacle on Tuesday when he said he would not stand in the way of a committee vote on the plan.
The House of Representatives has already voted to let pilots carry guns, although the Bush administration said two months ago it was opposed to the idea. However, last week Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he had asked his new security chief to study the possibility.
MACHETES NEXT?
Earlier this year, Hollings mocked the idea of giving guns to pilots, saying passengers might be armed with machetes next. But support has been building both in and out of his committee for the proposal, which has 24 co-sponsors in the Senate.
Hollings' spokesman Andy Davis said the senator still thought arming pilots was a "terrible idea," and believed the money could be better spent reinforcing cockpit doors, but that he would not block a committee vote.
The House in July passed legislation that would allow all 70,000 pilots of U.S. commercial airplanes to carry guns on a voluntary basis. Supporters said it was necessary to secure the cockpit and prevent hijackings of the kind that happened last Sept. 11.
Two months ago, the Bush administration announced it opposed the idea, and Mineta said last week that a plan like the House had approved could be very expensive, costing $850 million to establish and over $250 million a year to carry out.
However, Mineta also said that while he was personally opposed to giving pilots lethal force, he had asked his new security chief to explore options to arm pilots with guns.
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=politicsnews&StoryID=1277361
"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 31, 2002 04:32 PM ET Email this article Printer friendly version
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of arming U.S. airline pilots said on Wednesday that prospects were brighter for getting legislation passed this year after the idea's chief opponent in the Senate said he would allow a committee vote.
A spokesman for Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, one of the chief co-sponsors of a plan to arm pilots, said he would push for committee action in September, after the chamber returns from its summer recess, with the hope of getting the entire Senate to approve the measure soon afterward.
"We intend to ask for a markup (committee) hearing in September. Our feeling is that this is going to pass easily out of committee and survive a vote on the floor," said Eric Bovim, Burns' spokesman.
South Carolina Democrat Ernest Hollings, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee through which the pilot-arming proposal must pass, removed a potential obstacle on Tuesday when he said he would not stand in the way of a committee vote on the plan.
The House of Representatives has already voted to let pilots carry guns, although the Bush administration said two months ago it was opposed to the idea. However, last week Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he had asked his new security chief to study the possibility.
MACHETES NEXT?
Earlier this year, Hollings mocked the idea of giving guns to pilots, saying passengers might be armed with machetes next. But support has been building both in and out of his committee for the proposal, which has 24 co-sponsors in the Senate.
Hollings' spokesman Andy Davis said the senator still thought arming pilots was a "terrible idea," and believed the money could be better spent reinforcing cockpit doors, but that he would not block a committee vote.
The House in July passed legislation that would allow all 70,000 pilots of U.S. commercial airplanes to carry guns on a voluntary basis. Supporters said it was necessary to secure the cockpit and prevent hijackings of the kind that happened last Sept. 11.
Two months ago, the Bush administration announced it opposed the idea, and Mineta said last week that a plan like the House had approved could be very expensive, costing $850 million to establish and over $250 million a year to carry out.
However, Mineta also said that while he was personally opposed to giving pilots lethal force, he had asked his new security chief to explore options to arm pilots with guns.
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=politicsnews&StoryID=1277361
"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
Reuters
WASHINGTON - Supporters of arming U.S. airline pilots said on Wednesday that prospects were brighter for getting legislation passed this year after the idea's chief opponent in the Senate said he would allow a committee vote.
A spokesman for Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, one of the chief co-sponsors of a plan to arm pilots, said he would push for committee action in September, after the chamber returns from its summer recess, with the hope of getting the entire Senate to approve the measure soon afterward.
"We intend to ask for a markup (committee) hearing in September. Our feeling is that this is going to pass easily out of committee and survive a vote on the floor," said Eric Bovim, Burns' spokesman.
South Carolina Democrat Ernest Hollings, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee through which the pilot-arming proposal must pass, removed a potential obstacle on Tuesday when he said he would not stand in the way of a committee vote on the plan.
The House of Representatives has already voted to let pilots carry guns, although the Bush administration said two months ago it was opposed to the idea. However, last week Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said he had asked his new security chief to study the possibility.
MACHETES NEXT?
Earlier this year, Hollings mocked the idea of giving guns to pilots, saying passengers might be armed with machetes next. But support has been building both in and out of his committee for the proposal, which has 24 co-sponsors in the Senate.
Hollings' spokesman Andy Davis said the senator still thought arming pilots was a "terrible idea," and believed the money could be better spent reinforcing cockpit doors, but that he would not block a committee vote.
The House in July passed legislation that would allow all 70,000 pilots of U.S. commercial airplanes to carry guns on a voluntary basis. Supporters said it was necessary to secure the cockpit and prevent hijackings of the kind that happened last Sept. 11.
Two months ago, the Bush administration announced it opposed the idea, and Mineta said last week that a plan like the House had approved could be very expensive, costing $850 million to establish and over $250 million a year to carry out.
However, Mineta also said that while he was personally opposed to giving pilots lethal force, he had asked his new security chief to explore options to arm pilots with guns. http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/politics/3773129.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
By MATTHEW L. WALD
ASHINGTON, July 30 - Senator Ernest F. Hollings, the Senate's most vocal and influential opponent of letting airline pilots carry guns, said today that he would not stand in the way of a vote on the issue.
Backers of the measure say they will press for a vote in the Senate when lawmakers return from the August recess. The House has already voted in favor of letting pilots carry guns, overruling a decision by the Transportation Department.
Mr. Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in an interview that a simpler, more reliable form of security would be to assure that pilots kept their fortified cockpit doors shut, even if the hijackers were assaulting a pilot's wife in the cabin.
But, he said, his colleagues saw it differently. "I am not the mother superior," he said. "Let them vote."
A main sponsor of the bill, Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, said he would seek a vote in September.
When Congress passed its major aviation security bill last November, it left a decision on guns to the Transportation Security Administration, which it established in the same law. The first head of the agency, John Magaw, announced without explanation that he would not allow guns in the cockpit. Mr. Magaw was fired on July 18 by the transportation secretary, Norman Y. Mineta.
Mr. Mineta said he also opposes guns, mostly because of what it would cost to train pilots to use them.
Mr. Burns said today that he expected the initial training would cost about $2,500 per pilot, including food and lodging during the training period. Transportation Department officials had quoted a figure about triple that amount.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/31/politics/31PILO.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