Joseph Farrah
© 2002 WorldNetDaily,
With a stroke of the pen, one un-elected and unaccountable federal bureaucrat - whose name may not be familiar to you - recently ruled that airline pilots may not keep firearms in their cockpits. His name is John Magaw, or, as I call him, "No-Draw Magaw."
Magaw's newest job is Transportation Security Administration director.
Last week, Magaw told the U.S. Senate that pilots don't need guns. He told the Senate pilots would be better off concentrating on flying their planes. He told the Senate he is considering allowing pilots to carry stun guns or collapsible metal batons.
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., asked the obvious question about how the tragic and devastating events of Sept. 11 might have been recast without such restrictions imposed on responsible airline pilots, most of whom are trained in the military.
"If they had firearms, if they had a pistol to defend themselves or their plane, would that have made a difference?"
Here is the incomprehensible, elusive, nonsensical response from Magaw: "Well it may have, but that's a lot different today than it was then."
Hello? Earth to No-Draw: Don't the American people deserve a slightly better explanation than that? Don't the victims of Sept. 11 deserve a slightly more thoughtful response? Don't the families of those victims in both the planes and the buildings deserve some straight talk?
Let me tell you a little more about No-Draw Magaw and his career path to what has become a critically important post in this security-conscious age of international terrorism.
On April 19, 1995, Magaw was director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. You may remember that date in history. It was the day the Oklahoma City federal building was bombed.
"I was very concerned about that day and issued memos to all our field offices," Magaw explained. "They were put on the alert." As a result of that alert, no ATF field agents in the Murrah Building were killed or injured - even though they were the apparent target of the bombing.
No one else in the building got any warning, so 168 men, women and children were killed. But no ATF agent got a scratch. Magaw did a great job of protecting his own that day, but he didn't do much to protect innocent civilians.