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Too expensive to arm pilots?
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Too expensive to arm pilots?
Feds' $900 million estimate called over-inflated
Posted: September 7, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty
c 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
An airline pilots' group that supports arming flight crews as a "last line of defense" against potential terrorist hijackers says training cost figures cited by the government are seriously over-estimated.
Capt. Tracy Price, chairman of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, praised the Senate's passage of a bill on Thursday allowing airline pilots to be armed. But in a statement released yesterday, he criticized the administration's start-up figure of $800 to $900 million to train as many as 85,000 commercial air pilots who volunteer to pack guns in cockpits.
"While the overwhelming majority of both Houses of Congress - along with a large majority of safety experts, American citizens and airline pilots - see arming pilots as a long overdue, common-sense response to the terrorist threat," Price said, "there are those in the administration that remain opposed. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is one of them."
Mineta, who also served as former President Clinton's transportation chief, warned this summer that start-up costs for an armed-pilot program could cost nearly $1 billion, with an annual retention cost of about $250 million.
Administration officials said after the 87-6 Senate vote that the Transportation Security Administration, which would oversee the training, does not have that kind of money in its budget.
Professional firearms trainers like Dr. Ignatius Piazza, founder and president of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Las Vegas, also says the government's figures are too high.
In fact, Piazza said he could do it for about $2,500 per pilot, or $212.5 million - a quarter of what Mineta says it would cost - were he even interested in charging for his services, which he's not.
Last year, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Piazza made an offer to airlines that he would train their pilots for free, an offer he repeated to WorldNetDaily in an interview yesterday.
"I can't speak for other training organizations, but Front Sight offers to train any commercial pilot authorized to carry a gun to defend the cockpit free of charge," he said. "We're trying to do our part to help reduce any costs associated with that. All the airlines have to do is get their pilots to Las Vegas."
Figures cited by Price were even less.
"Many high-quality firearms training institutes have said that this training can be accomplished for less than $1,500 per pilot," he said.
According to Transportation Department figures, by comparison it would cost taxpayers more than $10,500 each to train pilots in handgun use.
But Price said to get to that figure, "Secretary Mineta assumes an unnecessarily long training program, and that 100 percent of all commercial pilots will volunteer to participate in the program," including pilots of very small passenger aircraft with few seats.
Officials at the Transportation Department and TSA did not return calls asking how Mineta arrived at the figure of $800-900 million to initially train pilots.
Despite differences over the cost figures cited by the administration, Price said APSA was "extremely pleased" that the Senate bill - which was attached as an amendment to Homeland Security legislation by the bill's original sponsor, Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., and cosponsor, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. - passed.
"We are convinced that it will provide an excellent foundation for an armed-pilot program," Price said.
A similar measure passed the House July 10 on a vote of 310-113. Price expressed confidence "minor differences" between both bills could be worked out.
Other airline pilots' unions and organizations were pleased with the Senate vote.
"With the tremendous vote in favor of the Boxer-Smith Amendment, our nation's representatives are one step closer to augmenting aviation security to an unprecedented level through the creation of a program to protect commercial aircraft from terrorist acts by arming airline pilots," said Capt. Duane E. Woerth, president of the 66,000-strong Air Line Pilots Association International, representing U.S. and Canadian pilots.
"We are confident that the program created today by this legislation will not only add a genuine security enhancement in the very near term, but also give passengers and crews the added confidence that their government had provided all possible resources needed to defend against a terrorist hijacking," said Woerth.
Meanwhile, the White House expressed some reservation about the passage of the Senate measure, even though President Bush publicly reversed himself earlier this week and said he would back a trial program that sought to arm around 1,400 - or 2 percent - of airline pilots.
"The administration believes there are a number of security concerns that need to be addressed as Congress proceeds" in its debate over arming pilots, Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said in response to a question by WorldNetDaily at yesterday's White House briefing.
Specifically, the administration is concerned about the length of training time pilots will complete, how they will be taught to fire weapons in the "confined space" of a cockpit, the consideration of passengers and the "integrity of the airplane itself," Fleischer said.
"These issues are very important," he added. "The president hopes [lawmakers] will take a thoughtful approach to these issues. ..."
Administration suggestions included a "detailed, effective" training program and lock boxes for weapons aboard aircraft.
But Capt. Robert Lambert, communications director for APSA, said suggestions like that were sure to drive up the cost of implementing the program.
"You want expense, this is where you'll get it," he told WorldNetDaily.
He said airlines would have to take aircraft out of service to install lock boxes; maintenance personnel would have to be trained to service and take care of them; and planes that are parked overnight with weapons aboard "become a massive security problem."
APSA has proposed making pilots who volunteer for the armed-pilot program be made special agents of the federal government, which would permit them to carry a weapon concealed while in the performance of duty and alleviate the problems created by the Bush administration's suggestions.
"[The administration] is acting like this concealed-carry thing is a big deal," said Lambert. "We have [government agents] carrying concealed weapons on planes all the time.
"Give me a break. We're making this harder than we have to," he said.
Piazza said his offer to train pilots free was not an offer to the government. "It was made to the airlines," he said.
"We're trying to help private industry do the right thing and make the airlines more secure for all their passengers. We're already paying the government for this training through our tax dollars."
"We can do it cheaper than" the federal government, he said.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28861
Edited by - josey1 on 09/07/2002 06:33:48
Feds' $900 million estimate called over-inflated
Posted: September 7, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty
c 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
An airline pilots' group that supports arming flight crews as a "last line of defense" against potential terrorist hijackers says training cost figures cited by the government are seriously over-estimated.
Capt. Tracy Price, chairman of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, praised the Senate's passage of a bill on Thursday allowing airline pilots to be armed. But in a statement released yesterday, he criticized the administration's start-up figure of $800 to $900 million to train as many as 85,000 commercial air pilots who volunteer to pack guns in cockpits.
"While the overwhelming majority of both Houses of Congress - along with a large majority of safety experts, American citizens and airline pilots - see arming pilots as a long overdue, common-sense response to the terrorist threat," Price said, "there are those in the administration that remain opposed. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is one of them."
Mineta, who also served as former President Clinton's transportation chief, warned this summer that start-up costs for an armed-pilot program could cost nearly $1 billion, with an annual retention cost of about $250 million.
Administration officials said after the 87-6 Senate vote that the Transportation Security Administration, which would oversee the training, does not have that kind of money in its budget.
Professional firearms trainers like Dr. Ignatius Piazza, founder and president of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Las Vegas, also says the government's figures are too high.
In fact, Piazza said he could do it for about $2,500 per pilot, or $212.5 million - a quarter of what Mineta says it would cost - were he even interested in charging for his services, which he's not.
Last year, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Piazza made an offer to airlines that he would train their pilots for free, an offer he repeated to WorldNetDaily in an interview yesterday.
"I can't speak for other training organizations, but Front Sight offers to train any commercial pilot authorized to carry a gun to defend the cockpit free of charge," he said. "We're trying to do our part to help reduce any costs associated with that. All the airlines have to do is get their pilots to Las Vegas."
Figures cited by Price were even less.
"Many high-quality firearms training institutes have said that this training can be accomplished for less than $1,500 per pilot," he said.
According to Transportation Department figures, by comparison it would cost taxpayers more than $10,500 each to train pilots in handgun use.
But Price said to get to that figure, "Secretary Mineta assumes an unnecessarily long training program, and that 100 percent of all commercial pilots will volunteer to participate in the program," including pilots of very small passenger aircraft with few seats.
Officials at the Transportation Department and TSA did not return calls asking how Mineta arrived at the figure of $800-900 million to initially train pilots.
Despite differences over the cost figures cited by the administration, Price said APSA was "extremely pleased" that the Senate bill - which was attached as an amendment to Homeland Security legislation by the bill's original sponsor, Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., and cosponsor, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. - passed.
"We are convinced that it will provide an excellent foundation for an armed-pilot program," Price said.
A similar measure passed the House July 10 on a vote of 310-113. Price expressed confidence "minor differences" between both bills could be worked out.
Other airline pilots' unions and organizations were pleased with the Senate vote.
"With the tremendous vote in favor of the Boxer-Smith Amendment, our nation's representatives are one step closer to augmenting aviation security to an unprecedented level through the creation of a program to protect commercial aircraft from terrorist acts by arming airline pilots," said Capt. Duane E. Woerth, president of the 66,000-strong Air Line Pilots Association International, representing U.S. and Canadian pilots.
"We are confident that the program created today by this legislation will not only add a genuine security enhancement in the very near term, but also give passengers and crews the added confidence that their government had provided all possible resources needed to defend against a terrorist hijacking," said Woerth.
Meanwhile, the White House expressed some reservation about the passage of the Senate measure, even though President Bush publicly reversed himself earlier this week and said he would back a trial program that sought to arm around 1,400 - or 2 percent - of airline pilots.
"The administration believes there are a number of security concerns that need to be addressed as Congress proceeds" in its debate over arming pilots, Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said in response to a question by WorldNetDaily at yesterday's White House briefing.
Specifically, the administration is concerned about the length of training time pilots will complete, how they will be taught to fire weapons in the "confined space" of a cockpit, the consideration of passengers and the "integrity of the airplane itself," Fleischer said.
"These issues are very important," he added. "The president hopes [lawmakers] will take a thoughtful approach to these issues. ..."
Administration suggestions included a "detailed, effective" training program and lock boxes for weapons aboard aircraft.
But Capt. Robert Lambert, communications director for APSA, said suggestions like that were sure to drive up the cost of implementing the program.
"You want expense, this is where you'll get it," he told WorldNetDaily.
He said airlines would have to take aircraft out of service to install lock boxes; maintenance personnel would have to be trained to service and take care of them; and planes that are parked overnight with weapons aboard "become a massive security problem."
APSA has proposed making pilots who volunteer for the armed-pilot program be made special agents of the federal government, which would permit them to carry a weapon concealed while in the performance of duty and alleviate the problems created by the Bush administration's suggestions.
"[The administration] is acting like this concealed-carry thing is a big deal," said Lambert. "We have [government agents] carrying concealed weapons on planes all the time.
"Give me a break. We're making this harder than we have to," he said.
Piazza said his offer to train pilots free was not an offer to the government. "It was made to the airlines," he said.
"We're trying to help private industry do the right thing and make the airlines more secure for all their passengers. We're already paying the government for this training through our tax dollars."
"We can do it cheaper than" the federal government, he said.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28861
Edited by - josey1 on 09/07/2002 06:33:48
Comments
-- Smith armed pilots' provision passes overwhelmingly
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
(703)321-8585
(Friday, September 6, 2002) -- Your hard work in lobbying your legislators has paid off yet again. Yesterday, the Senate voted to arm pilots by a huge majority of 87-6. Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) was the author of the amendment, and spoke forcefully in favor of its passage.
"The [alternative] of not having guns in the cockpits or trained crews," said Sen. Smith, is having "F-16s which will shoot down commercial aircraft with Americans on board, a terrible scenario to have happen."
"I believe we have to give our nation's pilots and flight attendants a fighting chance against these terrorists before our government has to resort to shooting down an airplane," Smith stated.
Meanwhile, onlookers on Capitol Hill were astonished at what appeared to be efforts by the Bush administration to peel off support for the Smith provision.
In the 24 hours leading up to the vote, the administration announced it would implement a "test" program allowing a mere 1,000 pilots to be armed. The timing of this announcement by the Bush administration -- after having refused for several months to arm pilots at all -- was not missed by those in Congress.
Even anti-gun Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), a cosponsor of the Smith amendment, was concerned about the President's last-minute proposal. "I very much worry," Boxer said, "that some kind of a test program is going to be put forward by the administration as opposed to what we are doing."
Her fears were well founded, for no doubt, the "test" program could have been intended as a means of deflating support for the Smith amendment... which will arm ALL pilots who wish to carry a gun. Just as debate was underway in the Senate, administration officials seemed to do an "about face" when they released a letter outlining all the supposed complications with arming pilots.
After the overwhelming vote in the Senate, the administration reluctantly said it was willing to work with Congress to implement such a plan if it becomes law. Perhaps. But one should not forget that Congress already passed legislation last November, authorizing the administration to train and arm pilots. So far, the administration has refused to implement that law.
Because of this foot-dragging, the House of Representatives had to pass legislation this past July to force the administration to arm pilots who want to carry. That legislation passed by a veto-proof majority of 310-113.
Likewise, the Smith amendment passed yesterday with comparatively few dissenting votes. The following Senators voted AGAINST the amendment: Chafee (R-RI), Corzine (D-NJ), Jeffords (D-VT), Kennedy (D-MA), Reed (D-RI), and Specter (R-PA).
The Smith provision is slightly different from the one that passed in the House. Like its House counterpart, the Smith provision mandates the arming of any pilot who so desires. But the Senate language also provides training for airplane stewards.
While the House bill was passed as a stand-alone measure, the Senate amendment was passed as part of a larger bill (the Homeland Security Act of 2002).
Please stay tuned for future updates as to the status of the armed pilots language.
http://www.gunowners.org/a090602.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 The Associated Press
September 5, 2002, 7:33 PM EDT
Some stipulations the Bush administration attached to its support for arming commercial pilots:
* A test program must be undertaken to establish the viability of arming all 85,000 commercial pilots.
* Only pilots who volunteer to carry guns would do so, and they must undergo firearms training and safety instruction.
* Protocols should be established to coordinate pilot responsibilities with those of armed air marshals and other law enforcement officials who travel with guns.
* Pilots should be issued individual lock boxes that would be used to transport weapons to and from aircraft.
* Cockpits would have to be redesigned to accommodate special sleeves to hold guns.
* Studies must be undertaken to determine how to comply with state, local and foreign gun laws, as well as to determine liability issues involving use of the weapons.
* Congress would need to come up with more money, which the administration estimates would cost $900 million to start and $250 million annually to maintain. The Transportation Security Administration does not have money in its budget to cover the expense.
Copyright c 2002, The Associated Press
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-arming-pilots-glance0905sep05.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-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
By Captain Dennis Jackson
With the passage of Senate bill S. 2554 on September 5, 2002 there may soon be new "soldiers in the sky" to combat terrorism and hijackings. In July 2002 the House passed a similar measure by a margin of 311 - 110.
The US Senate overwhelmingly passed this bill 87 - 6 after a brief and futile attempt to block this measure by Sen. Fritz Hollings D-SC, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee. The 6 Senators who opposed this measure are:
Senators:
Jon Corzine, D-NJ
James Jeffords, I-VT
Arlen Spector, R-PA
Edward Kennedy, D-MA
Jack Reed, D-RI
Lincoln Chafee, R-RI
Senator Barbara Boxer D-CA was one of the co-sponsors of S. 2554 and a very vocal supporter of armed pilots. Boxer stated that allowing pilots the option of carrying a firearm would give them the "means to mount a last ditch effort against terrorism and hijackers."
"This is not a cowboy idea. Those who want them and can use them and understand them should have the right to carry weapons." Said Senator Conrad Burns R-MT in a press conference before the Senate vote.
The measure to arm pilots was included as an amendment to the Homeland Security bill by Senator Bob Smith, R-NH. If this bill passes the conference committees will work out the details as to how the armed pilot measure will be implemented by the Transportation Security Administration before being sent to President Bush.
As an example of details, Senator Hollings introduced an amendment that would require that the flight deck door remain closed during flight. This could pose a significant problem for flight crews. It is impossible to expect someone to go for 5-6 hours without using the restroom. But as Senator Hollings suggested in the committee hearings that the "pilots can use a potted plant in the flight deck!"
TSA director Adm. James Loy has claimed that the cost of arming pilots would exceed $850 million dollars initially and another $200 million per year to maintain. He failed to mention that a fully implemented federal air marshal program would cost the US taxpayers $4 billion per year to maintain. This is above the projected TSA budget of $30 billion per year. Industry experts claim a more realistic cost of arming and training pilots would not exceed $200 million.
The armed pilot program would be strictly voluntary. There are estimates that up to 25,000 pilots out of the 100,000 total would volunteer to become a Federal Flight Deck Officer. These officers would be authorized to use deadly force to protect the flight from criminal acts, or acts of terrorism. They will not have the authority to investigate crime, or detain and interrogate a suspect.
This is not an optional program for the airlines! Airlines would be prohibited from interfering with pilots who wish to volunteer for this program.
The US air carriers have been opposed to pilots using deadly force. It is unclear if this is really a valid concern since this legislation shields the airlines and pilots from liability in the event a firearm was used to defend a flight. This is not true in the event of gross negligence or willful misconduct.
It should be noted that all pilots who volunteer and are selected for this program would undergo a rigorous criminal history check. In addition, the firearm training will be conducted using the standards required by other federal law enforcement officers.
With the dramatic passage of S. 2554 we will add another important and effective safety tool to the flight decks of our commercial aircraft that will act as a significant deterrent to hijackings and air piracy. Passengers should feel more comfortable with the fact that firearms on the aircraft will be safely locked in the flight deck out of reach of those with evil intent. Every air marshal I have spoken with understand the danger they are in if they are identified. And they all understand that they can be identified and neutralized by a determined band of terrorists. Now we will have back-up in the flight deck!
It is wholly appropriate for everyone to call or write your Congressmen and Senators and thank them for their support of this important legislation.
Captain Jackson is a pilot for a major US airline, an NRA certified firearms instructor and an advisor to Armed Females of America. As a member of the Airline Pilots Security Alliance, he has been at the forefront of arming pilots since September 11, 2001 and authored the original petition to arm pilots that was delivered to Congress in October 2001.
Copyright c 2002 by Armed Females of America. All rights reserved. Permission to redistribute this article for noncommercial purposes is hereby granted, provided that it is reproduced unedited, in its entirety, appropriate credit given, and that the author is informed.
http://www.armedfemalesofamerica.com/archive.php?aid=643
"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
September 05, 2002 07:39 PM ET
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By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate overwhelmingly backed a measure on Thursday that would arm airline pilots on a voluntary basis in a dramatic security step aimed at preventing a repeat of last year's Sept. 11 attacks.
Gun control advocates from the Democratic party joined conservative Republicans in passing the measure 87-6, leading supporters to declare they had the momentum to overcome the remaining hurdles to making the plan law.
A similar bill already has passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin, and while the Bush administration does not like the idea it said on Thursday it would implement such a plan if Congress passes one.
"This is a package that will make our skies safer," declared Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill along with Sen. Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican.
Allowing qualified pilots to carry guns in the cockpit would give them the "means to mount an effective last-ditch effort against terrorism and hijackers," Boxer said.
"This is not a cowboy idea," Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns, another co-sponsor, said at a news conference outside the Capitol before the debate.
"Those who want them and can use them and understand them should have the right to carry weapons," Burns said. "I never got a lot done using a broomstick. You've got to have something that's lethal."
In the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York, four commercial airliners were commandeered by hijackers with knives who stormed the cockpits and took control of the planes.
ADMINISTRATION SAYS IT WILL WORK WITH CONGRESS
The Senate measure was approved as an amendment to a bill creating President Bush's Homeland Security Department. But that legislation that may not come up for a final vote for several weeks.
Then, assuming the Homeland Security bill passes, House and Senate negotiators would need to work out the differences in the guns-in-the-cockpit measures before sending a final version to Bush with the request he sign it into law.
Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill also would provide self-defense training for flight attendants. Several dozen of them rallied outside the Capitol Thursday to back the measure.
The Bush administration had been flatly opposed to arming pilots, but on the eve of Thursday's debate it signaled that it would consider arming a limited number of pilots.
As Thursday's debate was underway, transportation officials released a letter outlining all the complications with arming pilots, but said the administration was willing to work with Congress to implement such a plan if it became law.
James Loy, director of the Transportation Security Administration, said it would cost the government up to $900 million to establish the program to train about 85,000 pilots in weapons use.
He said pilots, not airline crews, would have to keep and maintain weapons and transport them in lockboxes. Each cockpit would be equipped with special sleeves to hold the weapons.
Boxer said Loy's letter "didn't lose us one vote."
One of the bill's chief critics, Sen. Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, agreed to vote for the measure after sponsors agreed to include a provision requiring cockpit doors to be secured and locked during flight.
Boxer said she knew people were surprised at her support for the bill, since she was an advocate of gun control.
"This isn't about guns in the hands of criminals. This is about a trained pilot, who volunteers, most of whom have training in the military," Boxer said.
Al Aitken of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents pilots at American Airlines, said supporters were grateful to lawmakers and said the large margin of victory in both houses reflected the sentiments of thousands of airline pilots who believe in lethal force as a last line of defense.
"From the legislative standpoint it is pretty compelling and makes it a lot easier to get a meaningful bill passed through the conference committee," Aitken said. "We will be continuing to ask the president to support this and sign it into law when it gets to his desk."
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=politicsnews&StoryID=1416747
"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
Kinsolving also asks spokesman about racial bias in employment
Posted: September 6, 2002
5:00 p.m. Eastern
Editor's note: Each week, WorldNetDaily White House correspondent Les Kinsolving asks the tough questions no one else will ask. And each week, WorldNetDaily brings you the transcripts of those dialogues with the president and his spokesman. In today's briefing, Kinsolving asked Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer about the president's intentions on allowing commercial pilots to be armed.
By Les Kinsolving
c 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
WND: Ellen Saracini, who is the widow of one of the airline pilots murdered on 9-11, has said that her husband wanted to be armed, and, "if he had been armed, the loss of life and property damage could have been vastly different." And my question, wouldn't the president consider, as a wonderful remembrance of 9-11, a stopping of all of the present disarming of our pilots as pleaded by this widow and supported by such an overwhelming majority of both the House and last night by the Senate?
FLEISCHER: Adm. [James] Loy, the head of the Transportation Security Administration, has sent a letter up to Sen. Hollings on the Hill, dealing with this very issue. There is an important debate underway in the Congress about the best way to provide security and protection for airline travelers. And it is increasingly looking like the conclusion of the Congress that they would like to arm America's airline pilots.
The administration believes that there are a number of security concerns that need to be addressed as the Congress proceeds. And the Congress will have its chance, as they meet in the conference, if the Senate is able to pass a homeland security bill, to address these issues.
And these issues are very important, and the president hopes that Congress will take a thoughtful approach to these. These issues involve the proper way to train pilots who may not be proficient as law-enforcement officials or federal air marshals in the use of weapons, especially in a confined space. These are airline pilots, and even those who maybe come out of the military would have to be trained in a very different security environment for how to use these if they ever had to use them, in a way that protects the passengers as well as the integrity of an airborne aircraft.
There is the question of what to do with these weapons once a pilot leaves the cockpit. How would a pilot travel with a weapon? How is that weapon secured? Would the weapon be left in the cockpit, where airline crews would come in and have access to it? Or would the pilot be expected to take it out and walk around airline terminals with it, in which case how would the weapon be kept safe as a pilot walks around an airline terminal?
The training program that would have to be required so that pilots could do this right raises important issues that Congress has to consider. There's also an important issue in terms of the time that it would take a pilot to be removed from his duties or her duties to fly an airplane to be trained, and the impact that would have on air travel.
And so the president has asked for the Congress to consider these safety features very carefully. The president understands Congress' intent here. The president wants to work with Congress to provide this safety to passengers, and the president hopes that there is a way that we can do this together.
WND: On another issue, the Associated Press quoted Richard Newman of Philadelphia, who noted as a recent anchorman for WTXF, "Television news is one of the last bastions of open, blatant racism. The news business moves people around based on race." Which he knows from experience, because he notes that he was replaced as anchor by a black man because he is white, and the station told him the newscast "looked lily white."
And my question: Since I believe the president has always opposed racial discrimination, he opposes discrimination against whites as well as against blacks, doesn't he, Ari?
FLEISCHER: Lester, the president's position on all these matters is that people should be hired on the basis of merit, and hired in accordance with the laws of our land.
WND: Great. I really appreciate these answers today, Ari. I'm very touched.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28858
"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