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September 14, 2004
Pilots and guns
I had a conversation with a moderate Democrat friend of mine (she may vote for Bush) a few months ago about terrorism and told her I thought a huge section of the country was in denile about really being at war and the dangers of terrorism. She asked for examples of this. A Large Regular rehashed my argument succinctly recently with these words:
'Forget the assualt weapons ban - it's now three years after 9/11 and airline pilots still don’t have the right to carry to carry a gun in the cockpit. That should be unacceptable but it gets little notice.'
It is unacceptable. We trust pilots to fly planes that can destroy skyscapers. We do not trust them to have a small caliber handgun in a locked safe in the cockpit. Almost all airline pilots have military experience and know how to use a gun properly. The ones that don't can easily be trained to do so. The only argument I know of against it is that 'Pilots should be flying the plane not shooting it out with terrorists.' How can a pilot fly a plane if he is dead? We trust pilots' judgement on everything except being able to defend themselves.
Please explain to me any other arguments.
Posted by Pete at September 14, 2004 11:10 PM
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