OBAMA EFFORT TO END ARMED PILOTS PROGRAM AN OUTRAGE, SAYS CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, WA – A revelation by the Washington Times that President Barack Obama is trying to quietly end the armed pilot program, making air travel more vulnerable to terrorist attack, should outrage travelers, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“The Washington Times nailed it,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who proposed arming pilots just hours after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and championed the armed pilot program. “What Obama is doing is risking public safety, as the newspaper put it, ‘in the name of an anti-gun ideology’.”

The newspaper reported in its Tuesday edition that President Obama is “quietly ending the federal firearms program” by diverting some $2 million from the training program to hire “supervisory” staff, whose job, it appears, will be to harass armed pilots through unnecessary field inspections.

“How dare the president, or anybody in his administration, take measures to erode the safety of air travelers,” Gottlieb questioned. “The armed pilot program provides a guaranteed level of security to the public. There may or may not be an air marshal aboard every airplane, but there is definitely a pilot in the cockpit.

“We trust commercial airline pilots with $500 million aircraft,” he continued. “We can certainly trust them with $500 pistols to defend those planes, and the lives of their passengers.

“Certain individuals have never liked the armed pilot program,” Gottlieb acknowledged. “These anti-gun, anti-self-defense bureaucrats seem more interested in their own power, and protecting their little empires, than they are in protecting the public. And now, Obama is catering to their anti-gun bigotry.”

Call the White House at (202) 456-1111, or send a comment by visiting www.whitehouse.gov/contact (http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact).

meh, the only shot fired by pilot since the inception was an AD in the cockpit

meh, the only shot fired by pilot since the inception was an AD in the cockpit

Meh?

I suspect that you support concealed-carry, and I further suspect that you believe it's a good idea because the bad guys don't know who is armed and who is not, so there's a deterrent effect involved. It's the same logic for allowing pilots to be armed.

I could even spin it that there have been no hijackings since inception. Maybe hijacking is no longer in vogue due to the possibility of armed pilots?

Either way, you and I both know that Obama is not abandoning this program due to failure. He or one of his lackies is taking a cheap shot at something that keeps air travelers safe. If he wants to reduce waste dollars in air travel, then do away with the TSA searches.

What exactly are you saying. That the President of the United States is intentionally taking an action he knows will result in Americans being less safe? Do away with the TSA searches? And replace them with what? Do you know how much **** is caught by those TSA agents in the course of a day at a major airport? Do you guys even think about the logic behind some of this **** before you post it?

Meh?

I suspect that you support concealed-carry, and I further suspect that you believe it's a good idea because the bad guys don't know who is armed and who is not, so there's a deterrent effect involved. It's the same logic for allowing pilots to be armed.

I could even spin it that there have been no hijackings since inception. Maybe hijacking is no longer in vogue due to the possibility of armed pilots?

Either way, you and I both know that Obama is not abandoning this program due to failure. He or one of his lackies is taking a cheap shot at something that keeps air travelers safe. If he wants to reduce waste dollars in air travel, then do away with the TSA searches.

What exactly are you saying. That the President of the United States is intentionally taking an action he knows will result in Americans being less safe? Do away with the TSA searches? And replace them with what? Do you know how much **** is caught by those TSA agents in the course of a day at a major airport? Do you guys even think about the logic behind some of this **** before you post it?

I'm saying the president is taking an action that may result in Americans being less safe. He may not see it that way but I don't think he is thinking about the logic behind some of this ****.

I was not clear in my TSA comment. I meant do away with searching for 4 oz of liquid and swiss army knives.

Do you know how much **** is caught by those TSA agents in the course of a day at a major airport?

I think I have a pretty good idea based on the eBay auctions, etc. 99.99999999999% of it is innocuous crap. Yes, maybe it's a "weapon" and it's certainly "prohibited" (like my contact lens solution in the 5oz bottle) but would any of it lead to my being unsafe? No.


Surely you don't think that TSA would even make a determined assailant grimace?