Does anyone else remember the Air Marshals? I seem to recall that, once upon a time, every single flight had an air marshal on it. They’re basically federal agents who ride the plane undercover and carry a gun and extensive training. Anyone who tries to hijack a plane would find that the air marshals had different plans for them.
So with billions and billions in funding going to making us feel safer from terrorists, what percentage of flights would you think have air marshals aboard them?
The TSA won’t say, but CNN’s put the number at less than 1%.
Let’s try to actually fund this? You can’t say you’re tough on terrorism and then refuse to fund programs to stop it. It seems like one of the few programs that might actually work.
They were never on every flight. That would have taken 10s of thousands of them. They were always on just a percentage of them. The idea was that since you could not know that there was or was not one on the plane you would assume there was one. Deturent was the goal. This is of course one of the reasons why arming pilots (with training and safety restrictions) was allowed in more recent years. Apparently a higher percentage of planes have pilots on board. š
OK not many of them are actually armed either but at least the cockpit doors are armoured these days. That is probably the best then that was done. Better even that searching everyone.
BTW I’d be more than willing to go through some training if it would make them let me bring my gun on the plane.
BTW Iād be more than willing to go through some training if it would make them let me bring my gun on the plane.
I think this is a horrible idea. Arming pilots is great, and upping air marshal counts is great. But regardless of views on gun control in general, I think allowing some people to carry guns on a plane is just asking for trouble. All it takes is one loose cannon (literally?), and one misplaced bullet can bring the plane down.
And who we allow to carry guns is a major problem. You know, and I know, that you can be trusted, but how does the TSA know? You can set up criminal background checks and residency requirements, but terrorists might have a clean background and live here for years before they try to blow up a plane.
Maybe the air marshals could start a “reserves” program of people who fly often but leads their lives as normal citizens. Although really, that’s got a lot of the same problems as the above.
Well my suggestion was largely in jest for many of the reasons you name. The reserve idea makes some sense as you could have them go through quite the background check and do a psyc profile etc.
One thing though is that regulations could require special ammo like the ammo that sky marshals already use. It breaks up easy and so while it will go through clothing and skin (of people) it will not go through the walls or windows of the plane itself.
And maybe if you tell the TSA I can be trusted they will. š Or perhaps not.