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Obama and Holder-- A Deadly combination for gun rights
After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed
to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would
unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of
aircraft and rammed them into buildings.
Now President Obama is
quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines
in the name of an anti-gun ideology.
The Obama administration this
past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire
more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots.
This looks like completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots. The
12,000 Federal Flight Deck Officers, the pilots who have been approved to
carry guns, are reported to have the best behavior of any federal law
enforcement agency. There are no cases where any of them has improperly
brandished or used a gun. There are just a few cases where officers have
improperly used their IDs.
Fewer than one percent of the officers have
any administrative actions brought against them and, we are told, virtually
all of those cases “are trumped up.”
Take a case against one flight
officer who had visited the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles within the
last few weeks. While there, the pilot noticed that federal law enforcement
officers can, with the approval of a superior, obtain a license plate that
cannot be traced, a key safety feature for law enforcement personnel. So the
pilot asked if, as a member of the federal program, he was eligible. The DMV
staffer checked and said “no.” The next day administrative actions were
brought against the pilot for “misrepresenting himself.” These are the kinds
of cases that President Obama wants to investigate.
Since Mr. Obama's
election, pilots have told us that the approval process for letting pilots
carry guns on planes slowed significantly. Last week the problem went from bad
to worse. Federal Flight Deck Officers - the pilots who have been approved to
carry guns - indicate that the approval process has stalled out.
Pilots cannot openly speak about the changing policies for fear of
retaliation from the Transportation Security Administration. Pilots who act in
any way that causes a “loss of confidence” in the armed pilot program risk
criminal prosecution as well as their removal from the program. Despite these
threats, pilots in the Federal Flight Deck Officers program have raised real
concerns in multiple interviews.
Arming pilots after Sept. 11 was
nothing new. Until the early 1960s, American commercial passenger pilots on
any flight carrying U.S. mail were required to carry handguns. Indeed, U.S.
pilots were still allowed to carry guns until as recently as 1987. There are
no records that any of these pil ots (either military or commercial) ever
causing any significant problems.
Screening of airplane passengers is
hardly perfect. While armed marshals are helpful, the program covers less than
3 percent of the flights out of Washington D.C.'s three airports and even
fewer across the country. Sky marshals are costly and quit more often than
other law-enforcement officers.
Armed pilots are a cost-effective
backup layer of security. Terrorists can only enter the cockpit through one
narrow entrance, and armed pilots have some time to prepare themselves as
hijackers penetrate the strengthened cockpit doors. With pilots, we have
people who are willing to take on the burden of protecting the planes for
free. About 70 percent of the pilots at major American carriers have military
backgrounds.
Frankly, as a matter of pure politics, we cannot
understand what the administration is thinking. Nearly 40 House Democrats are
in districts were the NRA is more popular than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We
can't find any independent poll in which the public is demanding that pilots
disarm. Why does this move make sense?
Only anti-gun extremists and
terrorist recruits are worried about armed pilots. So why is the Obama
administration catering to this tiny lobby at the expense of public safety?
Holder Even Worse
Eric Holder, Obama's Attorney General, has publicly stated that "Americans do not have a right to own guns" -- including to defend their homes, and notwithstanding the Supreme Court decision! He opposed the Supreme Court, and is now going to the "back door" to use taxes and legislation to get around the High Court, and Obama plans to change the Court as soon as possible to tip the scales against gun rights. Neither of them get the fact that, as we slip into a depression, smashing the US gun industry will destroy over 2.6 million jobs. Good timing, boys.
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