WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- As the airport security bill heads up Pennsylvania Avenue for a presidential signature, it appears Congress may have missed the flight. The focus of the debate should have been solely about security. And not just security at the airports - but security on the airliners. Unfortunately, they strayed.
Airborne safety includes reinforced doors, cabin cameras, air marshals and armed pilots. Although both the Senate and House had already voted in favor of arming pilots, several conferees including Arizona Sen. John McCain tried and failed to strip this already approved language out of the final bill.
It is important that Congress affirmed the right of pilots to carry firearms before the FAA could follow through with plans for new regulations to strip pilots of their ability to defend themselves and their passengers through the prudent use of firearms.
Lawmaking by agency is never good policy -- and, incidentally, not constitutional -- but in this case the results could be deadly.
Despite the efforts of a few isolated congressional contrarians, there are no stakeholder groups who seem to be on the opposing side of arming pilots.
Back in October, the Democrat-controlled Senate voted unanimously in favor of an amendment to the Aviation Security Act defending a pilot's right to carry.
In a recent poll conducted by The Winston Group, three-quarters of those questioned supported armed pilots as a precaution against terrorism -- including those who otherwise support gun control measures. Even pilots' unions have come out publicly in favor of arming pilots.
Then there are the pilots themselves. The majority of pilots have served in the military, and have received not just firearm training but have learned how to use defensive weapons under highly stressful combat situations.
We currently trust pilots to drive us around in winged tin cans 35,000 feet above the ground; indeed, our lives are in their hands already.
Naturally, we trust them -- and expect them -- to protect us to their maximum capability.
It is interesting to note that the issue of arming pilots has reminded Americans that there is no shame in defending yourself, and that guns in honorable hands can protect us all. The American public may be losing patience with self-styled "gun control" advocates whose twisted logic is designed to persuade us that because criminals have guns, law-abiding citizens shouldn't.
Under current regulations, pilots can carry defensive weapons into the cockpit, but that right has never been utilized. Ultimately it is up to the airlines to determine whether pilots will carry guns on their aircraft, and until 9/11 this was not a priority for internal discussion.
Fear of liability is keeping the airlines from implementing the program, but there are several legislative cures being considered by House Republicans including Georgia's Bob Barr and Pete Sessions and Joe Barton of Texas to remedy this barrier to security.
These contain similar basic principles: formal rules of engagement that keep the guns -- and the pilot -- in the cockpit at all times; the use of volunteer captains, co-pilots and engineers; formal firearms education for these volunteers with strictly enforced screening and testing standards; and regular re-certification of these "federal pilot officers." The FBI already is considering such a program, preliminarily referred to as the "Armed Cockpit Protection Program."
This training could be implemented with private sector participation under the auspices of the Department of Transportation, or as it is fundamentally a law enforcement issue, the Department of Justice.
Completion of this training and adherence to the rules of engagement must indemnify the airline industry against any liability stemming from a pilot's defense of his plane.
The events of Sept. 11 have taught us that absolutes in security do not exist. And most pilots, while in favor of the Bush air marshal plan, don't think that marshals are enough. They worry that air marshals can be identified and overwhelmed, or as potential hijackers rush the front of the plane, sky marshals will be shooting in the wrong direction -- toward the pilots.
The cockpit is unarguably the end target of potential air pirates, and pilots are in charge of the cockpits. Armed pilots would have given us a very different outcome two months ago, and as a result of the successes of the terrorist attacks, pilots now face threats previously unimaginable.
Military pilots can be scrambled immediately to "take down" any plane that has suffered a cockpit security breach. A well-placed bullet in a hijacker is a preferable option for the pilots, their passengers and the F-16 commander following behind.
(Kerri Houston is national field director for The American Conservative Union and can be reached at [email protected].)
