This answers all the questions normal folks have about arming pilots, the bigoted and uninformed will continue to ignore real life.

The Federal Ostrich Act Over Arming Pilots?

By Norman Turner July 17, 2002 (He's a retired USAF combat fighter pilot [Fighter Weapons School Graduate], also a retired judge from Lake Arrowhead, Ca)

Why does our federal government, especially the White House, have so much trouble understanding the need to arm Airline Pilots? What is it that makes people who otherwise seem reasonable, fight against this most logical and reasonable of steps to provide a means to defend the flight deck from terrorists?

Until 1987 it was legal for an airline pilot to be armed and there was no rash of problems that I recall from those relatively peaceful times. Now that thousands have been killed by religious fanatics who are willing to commit suicide to do us in whenever and wherever they can, the FAA and high level minions of the Executive Branch raise obstacles to giving the men and women we trust to deliver us safely, another logical tool to do just that.

These same officials are quite happy to provide F-16s and F-15s to "escort" an airliner on which suspicious activity is taking place. The most recent example occurred within the last two days when some airline passengers became suspicious of others who were passing notes to each other and acting strangely, they thought. F-16s were scrambled to "escort" the airliner to its destination.

As a former Air Force fighter pilot and combat veteran let me explain what that means. If something goes wrong on your flight, you may see a sleek fighter flying just outside the wingtip of your airliner. Inside that craft will be a young officer who is in all probability a really nice guy (or girl). If you wave at him, he may wave back. He may have a wife and a couple of kids.

He may live down the block from you and shop in the same stores you do. You may see him and his family in church on Sunday, if he happens to be in town that weekend. You may notice that he looks like a kid, with his short hair and ready smile. If he is your neighbor he may stop to help you if you have a problem with your car. In short, he is a decent, friendly guy who has the same values and concerns you do; maybe a mortgage, his kid's braces, the argument he had with his wife last night or being upset that his favorite baseball team may go on strike next month.

There is one major difference between him and the others his age. Underneath the wings of his fighter are some long thin thingies, probably painted white, with names like Sidewinder, Sparrow or AMRAM. They are missiles designed to down enemy aircraft in time of war. Let me tell you that they work just dandy. Should he need it, he also has a really neat cannon the will spit out exploding little projectiles at one hundred shots per second.

His job is to kill you if things get out of control. If terrorists happen to gain control of an airliner in which you are unfortunate enough to be riding, perhaps because your unarmed pilots are unable to stop them and the sky Marshall didn't make that flight (Only 1% of the Flights have Sky Marshalls). Guess what you became? You are a hostage in a flying passenger carrier that is now an enemy aircraft in a time of war (Remember the reason for those missiles?) Why? Because some religious fanatics named Abdullah and Omar are planning to fly it into a big building containing a crowd of people in the name of Allah.

Now once this is confirmed, that friendly, handsome young pilot flying out there, who's buddy is back about a mile, are each going to reach down with a gloved hand, move two or three switches (kind of like working your TV remote) and that instantly arms those missiles and/or guns and turns them into deadly instruments of destruction.

When authorization is given by representatives of some of those same governmental departments who are fighting the idea of arming pilots, one or both of those nice young pilots is going to smoothly drop behind your airliner, place it inside the gunsight and when he hears a buzzing tone in the headset, indicating a lock on, will squeeze the trigger on the front of the control stick with the right index finger. When they do that they will hear a loud whooshing sound over the engine and jet stream noise and see a streak of fire and smoke rocketing toward you and your airliner.

In about 6 or 7 seconds, your aircraft will be transformed into a large orange fireball. You will hear the loudest explosion you have ever heard and things around you will start to disintegrate. It will be frightening but don't worry about that because you won't hear it long.

Your flight will not be used to kill anyone on the ground and the fighter mission will be called a success mission by the same people who would deny airline pilots the ability to defend their own craft from inside. The Pilot who fired the missile will feel terrible about it. He or she will be traumatized, perhaps needing counseling. Don't give it a thought though because you won't care. You, along with your children, wife or husband and everyone else aboard, will have been reduced to pieces of flesh too small to tally. And, it all might have been prevented by a $400 pistol in the hands of a professional Airline Pilot.

Feeling safer now?

"An unarmed man is a subject; an armed man is a citizen"!

-- Anonymous, October 15, 2002