Posted on 09/30/2001 10:20:14 PM PDT by Jewels1091
A very heartfelt ditto and a huge THANK YOU for this wonderful, warm post!
God Bless you, Grampa Dave, you did the right thing.
THE ENTIRE EPISODE COULD HAVE BEEN AVERTED HAD EACH OF THOSE PLANES HAD STRONGER COCKPIT DOORS AND THOSE FOUR CAPTAINS HAD CRUMBY $300. PISTOLS IN THEIR FLIGHT BAGS!
WE SIMPLY MUST ASK OUR "LEADERS" WHY THEY DID NOT!!
AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT PLAN, ASK THE SURVIVORS OF THE 5,000 FORMER AMERICANS IF THEY WOULD AGAIN TRADE THEIR LOVED ONES TO APPEASE THE OH-SO DELICATE SENSIBILITIES OF SARAH BRADY AND THE MORONS AT HANDGUN CONTROL. ANYBODY ELSE WONDER WHY WE HAVEN'T HEARD FROM THEM SINCE 9-11?
As America continues to reel from the catastrophic events of 9/11, we need to rethink a few things:
It’s probably time to train and ARM the cockpit crews of US carriers who agree to the program. Many of the commercial pilots I know are FORMER MILITARY and already have extensive firearms training and experience. Pilots and FOs who do not want the responsibility can be exempted. It was, after all, the folks controlling the aircraft who were the targets on Terrible Tuesday.
During the rash of hijackings of a few decades ago, the feds put armed “AIR MARSHALS” on many flights. While some bogusly argue that a fuselage punctured by a bullet at 35,000 feet MIGHT bring the plane down – hijackings fell off.
One thing we know for sure about the four craft hijacked on 9/11: They WERE NOT PUNCTURED BY BULLETS BUT THEY ALL CAME DOWN and ALL 266 DIED!!
And to those who will inevitably – and stupidly – argue that pilots and FOs just cannot be trusted with the decision about when it’s time to pull a trigger, better tell the up to 500 folks sitting in the back that the guys up front are judgment-impaired!
Personally, I’d prefer to take my chances with a rapid decompression than watch some madman take MY flight into a building or the ground at 500 mph. That was the final experience of 266 fellow humans on 9/11. I KNOW I – like they – won’t survive that!
And pay VERY close attention to the "solutions" being offered by those in government: They are NOT talking about REMOVING the limitations they have ALREADY placed on our individual Second Amendment right to DEFEND OURSELVES. They are beginning to talk about FURTHER RESTRICTIONS on our liberties and MORE GOVERNMENT! More GOVERNMENT? The same GOVERNMENT that failed to ENFORCE EXISTING IMMIGRATION LAWS? The same GOVERNMENT that knew foreign nationals from known terrorist states with ties to bin Laden were attending flight schools here and did nothing. The same GOVERNMENT that failed so miserably in its obligation to protect citizens that 7,000 of them died like cattle in a slaughterhouse on September 11th? THAT GOVERNMENT??
Is this the same GOVERNMENT NOW ON THE VERGE OF PROPOSING NATIONAL ID CARDS?? </font color=red>
It’s again the old, old story: There aren’t TOO many weapons out there. It’s that the touchy-feely, warm-fuzzy PC crowd now sees to it that all too frequently, THE RIGHT PEOPLE SELDOM HAVE THEM WHILE THE WRONG PEOPLE ALMOST ALWAYS DO!
The bad Arabs connected with this mass murder are extremely rich. Saddam's wealth is over 7 billion $'s! Benny Laden's open net worth is between $300-500 million, and we have no ideal what he has in hidden assets. His family could buy out most countries. The despots who rule Syria and Libia are extremely rich. Arrafatty is one of the richest men in the middle east.
Yet none of that money gets down to help the poor Arabs, and our home grown terrorist backers try to blame us! Our home grown terrorists from Ramsey Clark to this renta priest are trying to convince us that we are the cause because we don't share our money with the poor in the Middle East. We could give our nation's wealth to these areas, and little if any would actually get down to the poor people. The rich terrorist/orders of mass murders in the Middle East would grab the money and use it to kill more Americans!
Not on my watch! I will not tolerate these massive lies about America/Americans being tossed like dung by Ramsey Clark and his renta mobbers!
Nope. Lose the hysterics. Bush is on record as "not even considering" that.
God places His people where they need to be at the time they are needed, and He gives them a calm resolve to do HIS will. This was clearly true in Todd's case, and it is clearly true in the life of our President, George W. Bush, whose serene strength has amazed those around him.
Praise God that even through tragedy, we can see HIS guidance and healing hand.
Thanks so much for pinging me for this touching article, kayak!
And one of the FIRST things should be to allow the flight crew to possess the means to defend the aircraft and their passengers.
Let me know when W falls into line with THAT common-sense proposal.
And in anticipation of your response re. SKY MARSHALS, here's a little something to chew on.
Talkback Live recently featured a former Air Force General who was also a commercial airline pilot. Don’t recall his name, but he supported ARMING PILOTS – and here’s why:
4 or 5 terrorists randomly seated on plane. Terrorist closest to front stands, grabs a flight attendant and, holding a large plastic blade he’d sewn into his clothing to her throat, announces he’s hijacking the aircraft. LONE sky marshal, weapon drawn, declares himself, and commands terrorist to release hostage and assume the position. During take down and marshal’s attention focused on first terrorist, terrorists behind marshal swarm and subdue him – and take his weapon! Unless the OTHER passengers come to his aid and take down the bad guys, the terrorists now have the only weapon on the aircraft and are now in command.
IT’S A NO-BRAINER, MR. BUSH: WITHOUT A GUN ON THE FLIGHT DECK, THE PLANE WILL EITHER BECOME A GUIDED MISSLE or BE SHOT DOWN BY THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE – PER YOUR ORDERS.
I AND MY LOVED ONES ARE SURE AS HELL NOT GETTING BACK ON A COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT UNTIL THE GUYS UP FRONT HAVE SOME MEANS TO KEEP US ALL ALIVE.
AND THEY ALREADY HAVE! Title 14 CFR 108.11 already authorizes airline pilots to carry firearms.
Check it out yourself by punching “14CFR 108.11” into any decent search engine.
Meanwhile, the Airline Pilots Association is petitioning Congress to pass a law allowing them to carry firearms in the cockpit. Doesn’t this association have lawyers, and don’t these lawyers ever check the law books? It’s already there! Here’s a piece:
Sec. 108.11 Carriage of weapons. (a) No certificate holder required to conduct screening under a security program may permit any person to have, ...on or about his or her person or property, a deadly or dangerous weapon, either concealed or unconcealed, accessible to him or her while aboard an airplane for which screening is required unless:
(1) The person having the weapon is-- (i) An official or employee of the United States (Why are they so !@#$% special?) or ... (ii) Authorized to have the weapon by the certificate holder and the Administrator and has successfully completed a course of training in the use of firearms acceptable to the Administrator.
A friend who is a Delta 767 Captain phoned to inform me of this. Pull up the whole statute and read it closely. I asked him about the "certificate holder."
"That’s the airline," he barked. "They have the authority to put a gun in anyone’s hands, according to the law already on the books."
He’s right. That "person" referred to is not restricted to pilots. They way I read it, the airline can authorize anyone to carry a weapon anytime, and that means you and me. It is strictly up to them. The bozos could have made the flights a lot safer a long time ago by simply utilizing this statute with prudence.
Todd Beamer and the guys on Flight 93
The NYC firemen and policemen
President George W. Bush
Bump for a true American patriot and hero, Todd Beamer and his beautiful and brave wife and family. May God bless them and our President.
Friend, they might well do that. Don't let it get you down. They have no concept of what a hero is, and they will never appreciate the likes of him as we do.
Here's an interesting quote I came across about character:
"I have often thought that the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks loudly and says: "This is the real me!"
William James, (1842-1910)The Letters of William James. To his wife Alice Gibbons James, 1878.
Stories like this and the one about President Bush saluting the wounded soldier say much about the real President Bush. I am grateful for the man that is the real George W. Bush, and am greatly relieved that he is our President right now.
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