The Pros And Cons Of Arming Pilots

The lack of security aboard commercial airplanes has become a concern for the government. Currently, unless there is an air marshal on board, the last defense of stopping a hijacked airplane is to have the military shoot it down so that it does not breech any more of the nation’s security. As a result, the idea of arming pilots and the rest of aircrew has been brought up to both the Senate and the House of Representatives (Bush Supports). The majority of government and people agree that it is a good idea to have guns aboard planes for pilots in the case of an emergency (Up in Arms). Both the Senate and House of Representatives voted to train pilots in the use of firearms. President Bush’s administration began to warm up to the idea of having firearms in the cockpits with the pilots.

At first Bush was not fond of the idea, but there is now a small trial being tested with a group of pilots to see if it would be a good idea to put the policy in place (Arm the Pilots).

In order to gain support pilots argued that if firearms were available to pilots on September 11, 2001 the terrorist attack could have been prevented. Supporters believe that with increased security aboard planes and access to firearms preventing hijacking on planes will be more successful (Up in Arms). With the new firearm policy in place, in the event of a terrorist attack aboard a plane the last line of defense would instead be pilots and the rest of the aircrew trained with firearms to protect passengers and the rest of the nation. Pilots, passengers, and the government argue that arming pilots in current times is just common sense (Arm the

Pilots).