That's odd because I remember going through a week of training. Must have been my imagination.

 

Given the security meaures that have been put in place since 9/11 I sense a lack of faith in the system.
Not against this program and it's not like the old days where a crew member could leave the cockpit to address a problem in the air or on the ground after push back.

 

I don't want taxpayer money paying for obamacare, EPA, ect. But the last time I checked we don't get to pick and choose where our taxpayer dollars go. Maybe you shouldn't be an airline pilot if you are afraid of guns.

 

Got data to back that up? How many times has it been useful?

 

That is a very weak argument. How many robberies have been prevented by the alarm system in your car or your home? And please provide data to back it up.

 

If you're asking how many times an armed airline pilot has put a bullet center mass in an armed intruder in the cockpit, under the program, then you already know the answer. None. That is hardly a metric for determining its success.

Quite a number of years ago I was the subject of a carjacking in Scottsdale, Arizona. My then-pregnant wife was out of the car, at a restroom at a service station, late in the evening, when a pickup truck with young men in it pulled up alongside me at an angle, blocking me into my parking spot. I was unable to get out, and two men jumped out of the bed, went around to my passenger door, and opened the door. They were in the car with me, coming across the passenger side, when they caught sight of a small 9mm in my hand. They rapidly left the car, got back in the truck, and left. No shots were fired. No threats made. I didn't say a word, although a couple of them did. What happened, however, was very clear.

They didn't need to enter the car to make their intent clear, however, and had they simply seen the weapon on the seat next to me and left, it would have been a successful use of a weapon in my defense. By the time my wife came out of the restroom and returned to the car, everything was over, and she was none the wiser. It wasn't reported to the police. It wasn't in the papers. It won't ever be part of any statistic, much like the vast majority of weapons uses in defense of citizens all over the country.

I recall the BigHorn County Sheriff saying many years ago, when asked why crime was so low in his county, "Around here, we consider a car jacking to be a suicide."

Bad people think twice about engaging an armed good person. It's one thing to knife and cut down and take down the unarmed. It's entirely another matter to face off with someone who has already drawn down on you, who is trained to shoot you, and fully prepared to do so. Deterrence is as good as firing a shot, if it prevents the fight, is it not? Where will you find statistics on what has been deterred? You won't, any more than you'll find statistics regarding the fire that didn't happen on 6th and Main today, or the 33 car pileup that didn't happen on the southbound Highway 51.

What we do know is that it's a LOT less expensive to put an armed pilot on a flight, than a salaried sky marshall, and the pilot has a BIG advantage over the skymartial in that the pilot is in the cockpit, where the hijacker wants to be. Arming pilots makes a great deal of sense, and asking them to pay for their training, given the huge economic benefit to having volunteers, is asinine.

 

There is a vast difference between shooting at 15, 10, or even 5 yards and shooting at one yard, which is about the maximum an FFDO would have in a cockpit.

TW

 

Not to mention there are a number of LEOs who aren't the best shot either.

 

So how is FFDO any less of a "feel good, but not really useful" than the layers of TSA we have to go through?

Passengers HAVE subdued and taken out would be attackers and bad guys on planes, many times post 911. We actually DO have data on that.

 

FFDO is not the same as police officers or military personnel. FFDO's are not trained to the same standard. FFDO's may be competent but that is a result of training they brought to the program not training they found there. I would advocate if a pilot wants to become and FFDO then they apply for the program pass a test that they train for, on their own, then they buy their weapon and maintain currency. I think the pilots could easily get the qualification at the nearest military installation. This would allow for an already established system to take over the burden and minimize cost.