Should commercial pilots carry firearms?.
An airplane is a large and complex piece of machinery serving as an ultimate transport that saves us lots of time and money. However, if an airplane is not properly handled in the air, it can cause destruction and human tragedy on a massive scale. One of the ways a passenger airplane can turn into a weapon of destruction is airline terrorism or highjacking. Commercial airline safety has always been an important issue. A number of acts of terrorism have occurred in the world during the history of commercial airlines. In those cases terrorists were seeking mostly for money or ways to escape from certain countries. In the attacks of September 11 2001 the terrorists" goal was to destroy the targets, not to threaten. Thousands of human lives were lost in the World Trade Center and Pentagon, millions of dollars, too. At any cost, we must never allow the highjacking of September 11 to be repeated. This tragedy has made airline security the number one issue. .
Numerous measures such as baggage checks, identity checks, presence of Sky Marshals on board and so on were proposed by airline companies, pilots, and security experts. Many of these measures are being implemented. But what if a terrorist manages to get himself and his weapons to the cockpit? Pilots become the last line of defense. Should they carry firearms?.
The idea of arming pilots of commercial airlines sounds like a no-brainer. I think that the atrocities at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would have been prevented if the pilots had been armed at the time of the highjackings. Pilots are charged with the safety of hundreds passengers in the air and thousands of innocents on the ground. With this enormous responsibility, pilots must be allowed the proper tools to secure the cockpit. (Hoschton) The Air Pilots Association, with overwhelming support from its members wants armed pilots in cockpits.
