Originally posted by: techs
Number of terrorist attacks stopped by pilots with guns: 0
How many terrorists have tried to use airplanes in terrorist attacks since we armed our pilots? In other words, number of terrorists who used airplanes in terrorist attacks even though pilots had guns: 0 So, we seem to be at a stalemate, although number of terrorists who attacked planes when pilots had no guns is at something like: 20. So maybe not quite a standstill. However, I am not going to try to lie to you and say that see there are no attacks so our plan worked, we just have no true evidence either way whether or not it has been effective. However, we do know it has been safe, there have been 0 incidents where passengers or crew have been injured or killed due to this policy.
Therefore consider this, we have a safety device, it will be rarely used, but if it is ever used, it could save a large number of lives each time it is used. We have been using it for 8 years, and in that time this safety device has harmed no one. We do not promise that this device will always work, sometimes it will not be enough, but we believe that it will save more lives than it will fail to save. However, some people are scared that this safety device will harm people want it removed, even though no one has been harmed yet in thousands of cases where it was present.
Take a step back, you can insert a large number of safety devices into that previous statement, and for most of those devices that you could insert into that statement, the people who want it removed would be considered idiots. Yet, somehow when we use the word "gun" that exact same reasoning becomes the norm.
For the record, before 9/11 plane hijackings were considered a hostage situation, the plane landed, and the hijackers negotiated using the planes passengers as a collateral. After 9/11 the game changed, the
entire plane is a weapon, the gun in the cockpit is a last resort tool to prevent the terrorists from gaining control of the giant missle in the sky. The gun is given to the pilot as a final layer in a layered defense. We are not relying completely on the pilot, we also have the improved doors, the increased TSA stupidity, the shoe checks, bomb sniffers, and all that other stuff. The pilot is there in case the terrorists get past all the other stuff, just in case the other layers are compromised. And FYI if they compromise a pilot, even with out a gun, he can crash that plane, so even if you take the gun out of the equation, a compromised pilot is a dead plane.
The pilots are not supposed to go out and save the passengers, they are
supposed to maintain control of the plane, even if the passengers are executed. It would be a horrible position to be in, but we all know that if hijackers gain control of the cockpit, a lot more than just the passengers will die. Letting them have guns is just giving them one more chance to prevent that from happening again if someone manages to defeat all the other layers of security. Taking away a layer of security just because you think bad things will happen despite the thousands of flights with no problems is just silly.
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