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[size=4]Mineta reverses stand on armed-pilot issue[/size=4]
[b]Transportation chief orders study
of 'lethal weapons' in cockpits[/b]

Posted: July 24, 2002  1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

In a dramatic turnaround, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has ordered the new head of the Transportation Security Administration to study options for arming the nation's 70,000 commercial pilots with "lethal force" capabilities.

"It is under discussion in terms of should we take another approach," Mineta told the House Transportation Committee's aviation subcommittee during testimony on Tuesday. "I have asked [TSA Administrator James Loy] to take a look at this to see whether or not there is some alternative, even if it is lethal weapons."

Loy, former head of the U.S. Coast Guard, replaced John Magaw as head of TSA last week.

"We're pleased to see the sea change that the Department of Transportation is undergoing and their new willingness to consider arming pilots with lethal force," said Capt. Tracy Price, head of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, an industry group that supports allowing pilots to carry guns. "This common sense measure has overwhelming support in both houses of Congress, among professional airline pilots and with the American people."

"We're considering this an endorsement of all the work we've been doing" on legislation that would permit pilots to fly armed, said Brian Darling, a spokesman for Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H.

Mineta, a Clinton appointee held over by Bush, historically has opposed allowing pilots to fly armed. [b]But his change of heart comes at a time when many on Capitol Hill and in the administration were becoming frustrated with the TSA's slow progress towards improving airport security – its primary function.[/b]

Besides facing charges by some lawmakers that the TSA has frittered away much of its resources on bureaucracy building, sources in Washington say some inside the Bush administration are becoming exasperated with the TSA's seeming inability to meet a November deadline to have all airport security screeners in place, as promised by Mineta and Magaw.

- continued -

Magaw also had come under fire from lawmakers and pilots' groups for deciding in April not to implement a provision of aviation security law that allowed pilots to carry guns. The law, passed last fall in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, created the TSA and outlined its core mission.

Earlier this summer Smith introduced a bill bypassing Transportation bureaucracy and directly authorizing qualified pilots to fly armed. Smith's bill also absolved U.S. air carriers of any legal liabilities, should passengers be injured or killed during the course of a pilot defending his plane against a hijacking.

The House has already passed a bill that would implement many of the provisions of Smith's bill.

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled hearings for Thursday to discuss the issue of arming pilots. The committee's chairman, Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., has been opposed to allowing pilots to fly armed.

But First Officer Robert Sproc, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said, "We are very pleased that Secretary Mineta has validated what we have been saying all along." He added, "We are going to continue to press Congress to move ahead with efforts" to pass armed pilot legislation. The Allied Pilots Association is the pilots' union for American Airlines.

Mineta said a program to train and arm pilots could cost up to $850 million to develop and around $250 million a year to maintain.

See article at:[url]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28383[/url]

Eric The(Finally!)Hun[>]:)]

I think the TIDAL WAVE of public support for arming pilots is FORCING the Bush Administratiuon to consider this.

Polls indicate 70-80% of Americans favor arming pilots.

NO WAY the Bush administration wants a bunch of pissed off conservatives going into the Nov. election.

                         Mineta said a program to train and arm pilots could cost up to $850 million to develop and around $250 million a year to maintain----eeehhh......give me a grand
a month and I will provide security on the flights I am on....

The best part of all this is that the VPC goons MUST be absolutely crapping their drawers.

garand(AndIDon'tMean'Dresser')man

I think you've nailed it.



I get warm and fuzzy just thinking about it! [^]

Why does everything seem to always cost millions and millions and millions???

Would this only apply to American pilots or all FAA license holders? Wasn't there another post that showed the FAA mailing licenses to po boxes in countries of the evil axis? Can you see a terrorists with an FAA license being allowed to board a plane because he's a licensed pilot?

The funny thing as that most of the pilots, being either prior military, armed citizens, or both, could probably teach the pinheads who will be paid to do the training how to shoot well AND land the damn plane!

Still, it's nice to see the Common Sense Presence Indicator finally light off (or at least begin to glow) between Minetta's and GWB's ears on this one... [thinking]

Congress was going to give the pilots what they wanted anyway. It would have been embarrasing for Bush to have vetoed what his own party in congress created. This is just defusing the situation.

When I heard that former director of the anti-gun BATF was leaving the TSA, I figured that it was over arming the pilots debate, now looking back, this was probably true.

Just wait.  Once the election is over the report will be released saying that lethal arms in the cockpit are a bad idea.

Almost a billion dollars!!  It should be handled just like concealed carry permits.  If you require the pilot to take the NRA approved class and let them buy the pistol of their choise, it won't cost taxpayers a penny.  Instead, the pilots will probably spend two weeks out of work (at our expense for the class and for their time out of work) in some classroom "learning" from some liberal, anti-gun LEO and required to carry a pistol that some bureauc[b]rat[/b] (that has probably never fired a pistol) makes them carry.z

As much as it will cost it's still cheaper than a replay of September 11th. Or worse yet our own fighter aircraft shooting down a bunch of commercial airliners because noone had the balls to prevent it and then the billions of dollars in lawsuits that will come shortly thereafter. Besides that, since when are the liberals in the Federal Government worried about spending our money?? According to the polls this in money the public is willing to spend. The sooner they implement this the better. Sign me up.