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House to Investigate Delays PreventingamingPilots
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
House to Investigate Delays Preventing Pilots from being Armed
-- Please join more than 30,000 others in petitioning Congress and the President
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
(703)321-8585
SUMMARY: GOA encourages concerned citizens to visit the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance website at http://www.secure-skies.org and sign their petition addressed to Congress and the White House. By joining the 30,000 plus Americans who have already signed the petition, you will add your voice to the growing number of concerned citizens who want pilots armed now. The petition will be closed down on Sunday night at midnight (April 28), and will be presented to Rep. John Mica (R-FL) who is spearheading Congressional hearings on this issue next week.
(Thursday, April 25, 2002) -- It seems that each day brings another story relating to breakdowns in airport security. Yet the administration still continues to drag its feet, thus failing to arm our nation's pilots.
Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who is Chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, has decided to formally look into this issue. He has scheduled hearings for May 2, at which time Gun Owners of America plans to submit written testimony. Several pro-gun pilots will be appearing in person to testify as well.
Representative John Hostettler (R-IN) and Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) plan to lead a press conference following the hearings where other congressmen, pilots and family members of 9-11 victims plan to speak.
While the planned schedule is encouraging, it's a shame that such hearings are even necessary. Gun owners were instrumental in pressuring Congress to pass an armed pilots provision last year. President Bush then signed that legislation into law in November.
But administration officials have been diligently working against this law -- officials such as Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who received an F- rating by GOA when he was a member of Congress.
"I don't feel we should have lethal weapons in the cockpit," Mineta told reporters in March. This statement is not surprising coming from him. As a congressman, he cosponsored a host of gun control bills, including legislation to impose waiting periods for handgun purchases; a bill to ban certain handguns; a bill to ban certain rifles and shotguns; and other gun control measures.
In fact, Mr. Mineta was such a reliable gun control proponent that Sarah Brady's Handgun Control group regularly endorsed him.
Mineta's opposition comes despite the fact that 73 percent of airline pilots -- and more than 75 percent of the American public -- support measures to arm pilots in airplane cockpits. To combat these highly placed sources of opposition, the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance (APSA) is gathering signatures in support of this goal. The group plans to present these signatures to Rep. Mica and President Bush next week.
ACTION:
GOA encourages its members to go to http://www.secure-skies.org and sign the APSA petition in support of arming our pilots before Sunday night at midnight (April 28).
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PETITION:
"It has been more than seven months since the terrorist attacks of September 11. We have since seen the disappointing results of an over-reliance on passenger screenings to keep terrorists off our aircraft. We know that with more than 100,000 Federal Air Marshals required to adequately protect our flights, that program will never be viable.
"We expect the proposed new cockpit door will significantly slow attempts to breach the flight deck, yet there is no such thing as an impenetrable door. Moreover, the door is often opened for physiological needs, thereby turning a barrier into a passageway.
"Too much time has already been wasted in the quest for improved airline security.... Common sense and logic dictate that the men and women we trust each day with our lives when we board an airliner can and should be trusted with firearms in order to provide the critical last line of defense. An American fighter shooting us down or needlessly subjecting ourselves to another fatal airborne attack simply because pilots are not armed should never be allowed to happen.
"Please provide the American people the protection they deserve by establishing a program to train and arm our pilots NOW!!" http://www.gunowners.org/a042502.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
-- Please join more than 30,000 others in petitioning Congress and the President
Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102
Springfield, VA 22151
(703)321-8585
SUMMARY: GOA encourages concerned citizens to visit the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance website at http://www.secure-skies.org and sign their petition addressed to Congress and the White House. By joining the 30,000 plus Americans who have already signed the petition, you will add your voice to the growing number of concerned citizens who want pilots armed now. The petition will be closed down on Sunday night at midnight (April 28), and will be presented to Rep. John Mica (R-FL) who is spearheading Congressional hearings on this issue next week.
(Thursday, April 25, 2002) -- It seems that each day brings another story relating to breakdowns in airport security. Yet the administration still continues to drag its feet, thus failing to arm our nation's pilots.
Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who is Chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, has decided to formally look into this issue. He has scheduled hearings for May 2, at which time Gun Owners of America plans to submit written testimony. Several pro-gun pilots will be appearing in person to testify as well.
Representative John Hostettler (R-IN) and Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) plan to lead a press conference following the hearings where other congressmen, pilots and family members of 9-11 victims plan to speak.
While the planned schedule is encouraging, it's a shame that such hearings are even necessary. Gun owners were instrumental in pressuring Congress to pass an armed pilots provision last year. President Bush then signed that legislation into law in November.
But administration officials have been diligently working against this law -- officials such as Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who received an F- rating by GOA when he was a member of Congress.
"I don't feel we should have lethal weapons in the cockpit," Mineta told reporters in March. This statement is not surprising coming from him. As a congressman, he cosponsored a host of gun control bills, including legislation to impose waiting periods for handgun purchases; a bill to ban certain handguns; a bill to ban certain rifles and shotguns; and other gun control measures.
In fact, Mr. Mineta was such a reliable gun control proponent that Sarah Brady's Handgun Control group regularly endorsed him.
Mineta's opposition comes despite the fact that 73 percent of airline pilots -- and more than 75 percent of the American public -- support measures to arm pilots in airplane cockpits. To combat these highly placed sources of opposition, the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance (APSA) is gathering signatures in support of this goal. The group plans to present these signatures to Rep. Mica and President Bush next week.
ACTION:
GOA encourages its members to go to http://www.secure-skies.org and sign the APSA petition in support of arming our pilots before Sunday night at midnight (April 28).
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PETITION:
"It has been more than seven months since the terrorist attacks of September 11. We have since seen the disappointing results of an over-reliance on passenger screenings to keep terrorists off our aircraft. We know that with more than 100,000 Federal Air Marshals required to adequately protect our flights, that program will never be viable.
"We expect the proposed new cockpit door will significantly slow attempts to breach the flight deck, yet there is no such thing as an impenetrable door. Moreover, the door is often opened for physiological needs, thereby turning a barrier into a passageway.
"Too much time has already been wasted in the quest for improved airline security.... Common sense and logic dictate that the men and women we trust each day with our lives when we board an airliner can and should be trusted with firearms in order to provide the critical last line of defense. An American fighter shooting us down or needlessly subjecting ourselves to another fatal airborne attack simply because pilots are not armed should never be allowed to happen.
"Please provide the American people the protection they deserve by establishing a program to train and arm our pilots NOW!!" http://www.gunowners.org/a042502.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
I know everyone has been giving Georgy a pass on all of his liberal pandering(its politics has been the excuse), but one has to wonder why he will not pass this bill, considering politically he cannot lose(even anti gunners voted yes on this bill).Perhaps Georgy is an antigunner after all.
Happiness is a warm gun
I disagree with you on GWB, know for a fact that he's a shooter, and enjoys guns. Politics have a strange way of clouding the issues, what appears to be one thing can actually be something else. I live within 10 miles of his Crawford ranch, and know him personally. He has done more for the military than any President in recent times, and is respected as the Commander in Chief. Two years ago when he was still Governor of Texas and was a Presidential candidate, he spoke at our Memorial Day ceremony in Killeen, Texas. He promised then that taking care of our military was his top priority, and has followed through.
I am retired Army, and will never believe he's anti-gun!
"If you can do it, it ain't braggin'".
JR Ewing - "Dallas"
And as far as him being a hunter, shooter, enjoyer of firearms-that hardly makes him pro right to bear arms. I know a lot of hunters who have no problem with anti-gun legislation, as long as they do not perceive it as being detrimental to their ability to go in the woods and shoot a deer. The "as long as I can go in the woods and shoot a deer, I dont care what the anti-gunners do" type of hunter is very prevalent in my home state of PA.
Happiness is a warm gun
Edited by - salzo on 04/27/2002 10:56:12
"Not as deep as a well, or as wide as a church door, but it is enough."
GW signed the bill in November as is reported above; Mineta is the roadblock - (and that problem's being worked on) why are you blaming Bush and calling him anti-gun? Are you anti-Bush?
"De Oppresso Liber"
You asked am I anti-Bush? The answer is yes. I am anti ANY politician who seeks to increase the role of the Federal government, in areas that they should not be sticking their noses in. With Bush sticking his nose in steel tariffs, campaign finance reform, education, I would say Bush fits the bill of an expander of government.
Happiness is a warm gun
SUBMARINE SAILOR,TRUCK DRIVER,NE'ER DO WELL, INSTIGATOR,AND RUSTY WALLACE FAN