Guns on Our Planes essays

Guns on Our Planes essays Should airline pilots carry guns on passenger planes? Following the attacks on September 11th airline officials and our government have been debating this topic among many other topics. They are trying to find the best and most efficient ways to keep the passengers and crews safe when they are in the air. Finally, on November 25, 2002 president Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002. In the Homeland Security Act the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program was also passed. This program allows pilots to be armed on passenger planes. This bill would not have passed through the Senate and the House if it was not for the overwhelming supported by the public and also the pilots of the United States of America. As with almost any other bill there are always people who disagree with the bill. The Federal Flight Deck Officer program is not any different. One complaint by the opposition is that the cost of arming and training pilots would be too high. It is true that the pilots who are armed will have to go through intensive training. The government is willing to pay for some of the cost of this training. According to The Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) they found that arming pilots is the most efficient way to defend our planes. Air marshals would be much more expensive and less efficient since there is no way we can possible put an air marshal on every flight. What would be even more expensive if we did not have our pilots armed as another event like September 11th would drain billions of dollars more out of our economy. If pilots are armed terrorist will look at our airplanes as less inviting to be attacked. This off course is what we want. So if we could even randomly arm a few pilots the possibility of there being a gun on the plane would discourage terrorist attacks. That is exactly what the new FFDO bill is doing. For the first two years of this bill only a few pilots will be allowed to carry firear...