Feds packing heat on planes: A safety issue?

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Friday, January 9, 2004

[Cronos]

My point. Our marshalls are tough. They could take down terrorists with box cutters with their bare hands too. Keep marshalls on flights, let them carry guns too. but, BUT, ensure that they are to be used only in the last case scenario.

[Cronos]

So that's why it'd be better to have Marshalls instead of just farming out guns to pilots.

[bjcintennessee]

A gun shot breaks open a window or punctures a hole in the fuselage, what do you think happens?

Rapid decompression. Years ago I worked at an Aeromedical Research Lab on an Air Force Base, and their outer-space studies proved that an astronaut had three minutes to react if his spacesuit was pierced.

Although the atmospheric differences between outer-space and 30,000 feet would be somewhat different, the same principles apply. Once the outside pressure equalized with the inside pressure, the lack of oxygen would be the only major concern. That's why those little oxygen mask thingy's drop down. Unlike in the movies, a single bullet hole does not result in a row of seats being sucked out.

As for the pilots complaints about having armed agents on board who have to pass less strenuous tests than they is required of them, I agree with their complaint.

OTOH, if the door to the captains' cabins have been upgraded so that they are impenetrable, then the captains have little grounds for complaints.

The bottom line that even our homeland security seems to miss is that 9-11 will never happen again. Passengers will never again sit idly by, believing their captors that they will be safe. Passengers will attack en masse, believing that if they are destined to go down, they will at least go down fighting.

And if a few unknown passengers are carrying, then all the better, because it is the unknown element that might deter future attempts.

[Travis McGee]

BANG!

For once I beat you to the draw, (but I had to wait until Oh-Dark-Thirty to do it.)

[Travis McGee]

Over 80% of pilots are ex-military, and are already experienced with pistols. And guess what? At least two of these pilots are on every flight.

Air marshals are on less than 5% of domestic flights. The next Atta has a better than 95% chance of boarding a domestic American plane with no air marshal, if he avoids flights into and out of NYC and DC.

(Most of the marshals are on the DC flights, essentially guarding our ultra-esteemed and extremely important politicians. We commoners can do without.)

[Cronos]

Ah, good, a technical, sane voices at last...

[HiTech RedNeck]

The bottom line that even our homeland security seems to miss is that 9-11 will never happen again.

Excepting, perhaps, for a hijack of an almost-empty plane.

[bootless]

Firing a weapon in an aircraft will doom it? That's just nonsense. Maybe in a technically inaccurate movie...

That Hollywood myth should be debunked by now.

Also, LEOs in small, confined spaces normally use frangible ammunition.

[Mulder]

Our marshalls are tough. They could take down terrorists with box cutters with their bare hands too.

LOL!

Are these the same bozos that staged a "sick out" shortly after 9/11 because they got tired of working so much?

The same bunch that had the standards lowered significantly (including the marksmanship test) so that the feds could meet their recruitment numbers?

Or the same "tough bunch" that accidently left their guns in the airplane bathroom on at least two occassions?

How about the AM who had a negligent discharge in a hotel room while between flights?

One Air Marshall was so dang tough he even flunked the psych exam to become a Philadelphia police office. This particular Air Marshall would later become famous for "hijacking" a plane because a passenger smarted off to a stewardess. He forced the passengers to keep their hands above their heads, and harassed one passenger of Indian descent who was a retired US Army officer.

Yeah, I feel great knowing these "tough guys" are on planes.

BTW, what percentage of flights do you think they are on?

[Mulder]

As for the pilots complaints about having armed agents on board who have to pass less strenuous tests than they is required of them, I agree with their complaint.

From the standpoint of the federal gov't, this has nothing to with people flying armed who have passed strenous tests and background checks.

If it did, they would allow private citizens who could pass similar tests to fly armed.

Rather, it has everything to do with increasing the disparity between the almighty federal goverment and us lowly peasants.

[Mulder]

Also, LEOs in small, confined spaces normally use frangible ammunition.

Uh... no they don't (at least not Air Marshalls), if what I've read on other forums is correct.

But even if it's not frangible, it's not going to bring down a plane.

[NittanyLion]

Because firing a gun at those altitudes will doom the plane pretty much.

Nonsense. Planes already have holes in them that are far larger than any bullet hole. The air system is built to pressurize the plane even as air escapes through those holes, and in fact, the system is robust enough to offset the effect of even more holes.

747s would remain pressurized even if a window blew out in midflight.

[Atlas Sneezed]

I think pilots deadheading and all feds who are permitted to carry a gun as part of their job should be allowed to have guns when flying as passengers.

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Screw the government bureaucrats. Pilots with guns are adequate. When the people they serve have the opportunity to go through the same certification and carry guns on planes, then our servants may carry.

[freedom moose]

i think everyone should be armed (or no one). if terrorists can infiltrate airlines why can't they infiltrate the marshall program? or maybe just a complete garden variety nutcase who becomes a marshall.
it wouldn't do anyone any good to have only one armed person on a plane if that person had ideas other than protecting the passengers.
granted a group of passengers could mob one person, but what if they got into the cockpit and locked the door? can marshalls enter the cockpit? i don't know, but i imagine they can do whatever they want.

[Atlas Sneezed]

You are obviously just an anti-government nut who would rather put our planes at risk rather than have well trained, armed, Federal Officers on flights, at no additional cost to the taxpayer.

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Actually, I would be happy to suffer the microscopic increase in peril that comes from not having government bureaucrats carrying a gun on the occasional flight, in order to gain added motivation for the RKBA to extend to all qualified citizens.

I can be just as "well-trained, well-armed" as anyone who collects a government paycheck.