- Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Pilots will be armed with
handguns if an amendment to the homeland security bill, passed 87 to 6
in the U.S. Senate Thursday, is included in the final legislation.
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- The amendment also will mandate self-defense training
for flight attendants.
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- The chief sponsor of the amendment, Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.),
told his colleagues that training and arming pilots with handguns was the
only realistic choice considering the alternatives.
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- "It's a terrible comment on our times that this
kind of equipment, this kind of effort has to be put forth, but that's
the world we live in, where people who are determined to kill us have no
qualms about killing themselves" Smith observed.
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- "The option to having guns in the cockpits and trained
crews is having guns controlled from the cockpits of F-16s shoot down a
commercial aircraft with Americans on board," he added.
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- Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), lead co-sponsor of the
legislation, usually opposes the Second Amendment right of private citizens
to own and carry firearms. She agreed that, under present circumstances,
however, the need to arm pilots outweighed her concerns.
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- "Our security checkpoints are failing, unfortunately.
They're doing better, but they're not where they should be, and contraband
is getting on the planes," Boxer said. "Let's give this program
a chance. Let's give pilots a chance to save their lives, the lives of
the crew, the passengers and, frankly, the people on the ground."
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- In addition to arming any commercial airline pilot who
passes a background check and required training, the amendment would provide
mandatory self-defense training for flight attendants, and require that
video monitors and wireless two-way communications devices be provided
to flight crews.
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- Smith said he hopes those steps will help prevent another
hijacking like those that precipitated the Sept. 11 attacks, and that American
military pilots will never have to shoot down a hijacked civilian airliner
to keep it from being used as a "weapon of mass destruction."
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- "I'm not sure we can ever 100 percent guarantee
that it won't happen, but we can sure as heck cut the odds," Smith
said.
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- http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200209\NAT20020905c.html
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