*** Posted by Chris V ***
Many good points for and against have been posted concerning the use of handguns in the cockpit.

Yes, it may not suit all pilots to carry a handgun, but shouldn't we allow the ones that does to have one? We do all kinds of training to keep us current on the planes we fly, a couple of days on the shooting range a year wouldn't hurt. After all, a hijack is an emergency situation like any other.

Yes, it may sound easier to hijack an airplane if you don't need to bring your own weapons, but nobody is saying that handguns are the only solution to the problem. If you have an armored door it will take more than 30sec to get trough...would you take the chance knowing the guy on the other side has a gun?

And if nothing else, it gives a feeling of safety knowing you have a last resort, and any man with a gun is a possible treat...even a pilot in a cockpit....facing a terrorist.

Air marshals carry on handguns, but they are only present on 1% of the flights, the pilots are present at 100% (even if only 50% of all pilots qualified to carry on a gun this would be an improvement of 500% from today!!!).

And when people say they would feel safer if they knew the pilots had some means of protection (and the proper training to use it).

I'm sure this debate can go on forever, but talk is cheap, can't we at least give it a try!?

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