FredT
02-13-2003, 09:04 AM
I took a round robin flight to 4 airports a week ago, which put me in the "one way" profiled lines on each flight. It'd be easier to fly naked. The really annoying part is that all the passenger harrasment hassle does ZERO good for the security of the passengers on the flight, and little good for the security for those on the ground, and costs us several billion $ a year for the foreseeable future, and beyond! (All those new federal employees will soon be federal retirees.) This is $s spent for nothing except to allow the congresscritters to claim they are taking _some_ action and assist in their re-election by folks who can't see beyond the cover sheet.
In light of the posts yesterday concerning police "abuses" of CCW holders I thought this might be timely. The black hole it fell into once it reachd DC must be massive! I submit it here as an attempt to kick start the proposal.
The following was provided to all Mississippi US Senators and Representatives on 1 October, 2001
The discussion so far concerning terrorist protection on airlines has been concerning ineffective passenger “screening,” passenger disarmament, the screening and hiring of government paid “air marshals” and their placement on commercial airliners. This last is an interesting concept considering that even my rough numbers show it will require between 25,000 and 100,000 of these individuals to maintain an effective protective force in the air at flight levels approaching that of Sept 10. The groups these “air marshals” could come from, and are actually being suggested by the politicians making noise about “ airline security”, are the US special forces, police SWAT teams, and the FBI. I expect all these “manpower reservoir” units are going to be too over committed for the next 3 or 4 years to do much in the way of “sky marshaling” or even training of LEO “sky marshals.” The last time we tried adding “100,000 cops” to the street we got billed for 100,000 and actually got less than 40,000 over a 5-year period.
I am also a bit concerned about placing government agents on airplanes with guns. History in the US has shown that civilians are more accurate and less likely to shoot the wrong person than police, by at least a 10:1 margin! ONLY by arming select civilian passengers will there ever be enough "sky marshals" to go around. That selection has already been done for us in the 32 states with concealed carry of weapons (CCW) permits. Each flight should have 4 or more “marshals” on board indistinguishable from normal passengers. If they ARE the normal passengers all bases are covered at little to no cost to the other passengers or airline. It may be prudent for the airline to offer discounted seats to those willing to serve as “air marshals” during their business travels, but it’s not critical to the success of the program
In my not so humble opinion using "non-lethal" weapons in any war is just plain stupid! It's time we stopped the fuzzy "emotional" arguments and started thinking clearly. Terrorists should die quickly and with minimal collateral damage. The current system requires the death of ALL passengers and crew on a flight to safeguard those on the ground. The Government now has only two options in response to a hijacking.
1. Shoot the plane down from high altitude over farm country.
2. Shoot the plane down from low altitude over cities and suburbs.
The ONLY play that saves the lives of the passengers involves the people on the plane when the door closes before take off. Why fight this war with both hands tied behind our back? Currently there are about 3.5 Million CCW holders in the US. In 6 months we could bring that up to 20 million, a lot of them being veterans and frequent business fliers. The cost of the operation goes down and the safety of airline passenger goes up through the roof!
Hoplophobes and govenment employee control freaks need to get over it! WE CANNOT PROTECT FREEDOM BY DENYING IT! We can best protect it by enhancing it!
Specific actions needed by Congress are:
1. Recognize CCW from ANY state in ALL states the same as any other local state or court ruling under the requirements of Article IV section 1 of the US Constitution.
2. Recognize the CCW in ALL locations! These must include airplanes, courthouses, other government property, stadiums, etc.
3. Enhance weapons safety training in all walks of life including schools, Scouts, summer camps, after school programs, etc. Providing this training is the responsibility of Congress under Article I Section 8 clauses 15 and 16 of the US Constitution.
4. Void foolish "weapons bans" in all public and commercial buildings. These only create a “Safe Haven” for criminals and terrorists while providing a target rich environment for them!
5. Make available to all those who choose to fly armed the appropriate ammunition and training. Many have trained themselves at their own expense, and it's foolish of Congress not to take advantage of that in this time of emergency. The frangible ammunition is a good choice even for most CCW locations NOT on airplanes. It is not commonly used for that now due to liability lawsuit issues. Because it dumps energy in a VERY fast manner it makes a really nasty wound channel plaintiff’s attorneys and misguided DAs love to hate.
6. Provide legal protection from liability similar to the "Good Samaritan" laws protecting first aid responders in other emergency situations if the CCW acted in good faith to protect him/her self and/or others. This should include the specific use of frangible ammunition similar to the Glaser “Safety Slugs”, Core-bon “Bee Safe”, and Remington “Disintegrator” lines.
Frangible ammunition will generally not penetrate the first thing hit, be it a person or a seat back. Protecting airplane vitals from this stuff is child's play compared to defending it against the full metal jacket projectiles used by many police units and the military. The protection can be as relatively inexpensive as a new layer of Kevlar wallpaper on the cabins and bulkheads. Protecting people from it is another matter, so this ammunition type still is effective against terrorists without compromising the airframe.
These actions aren't Politically Correct, but they WILL WORK!
For more information see:
http://www.remington.com/ammo/PAGES/pistolrev/disintegrator.htm
http://www.safetyslug.com/FAQs.htm
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/constitution/conart.html
and
http://www.m1911.org/ammo.htm#corbon
In light of the posts yesterday concerning police "abuses" of CCW holders I thought this might be timely. The black hole it fell into once it reachd DC must be massive! I submit it here as an attempt to kick start the proposal.
The following was provided to all Mississippi US Senators and Representatives on 1 October, 2001
The discussion so far concerning terrorist protection on airlines has been concerning ineffective passenger “screening,” passenger disarmament, the screening and hiring of government paid “air marshals” and their placement on commercial airliners. This last is an interesting concept considering that even my rough numbers show it will require between 25,000 and 100,000 of these individuals to maintain an effective protective force in the air at flight levels approaching that of Sept 10. The groups these “air marshals” could come from, and are actually being suggested by the politicians making noise about “ airline security”, are the US special forces, police SWAT teams, and the FBI. I expect all these “manpower reservoir” units are going to be too over committed for the next 3 or 4 years to do much in the way of “sky marshaling” or even training of LEO “sky marshals.” The last time we tried adding “100,000 cops” to the street we got billed for 100,000 and actually got less than 40,000 over a 5-year period.
I am also a bit concerned about placing government agents on airplanes with guns. History in the US has shown that civilians are more accurate and less likely to shoot the wrong person than police, by at least a 10:1 margin! ONLY by arming select civilian passengers will there ever be enough "sky marshals" to go around. That selection has already been done for us in the 32 states with concealed carry of weapons (CCW) permits. Each flight should have 4 or more “marshals” on board indistinguishable from normal passengers. If they ARE the normal passengers all bases are covered at little to no cost to the other passengers or airline. It may be prudent for the airline to offer discounted seats to those willing to serve as “air marshals” during their business travels, but it’s not critical to the success of the program
In my not so humble opinion using "non-lethal" weapons in any war is just plain stupid! It's time we stopped the fuzzy "emotional" arguments and started thinking clearly. Terrorists should die quickly and with minimal collateral damage. The current system requires the death of ALL passengers and crew on a flight to safeguard those on the ground. The Government now has only two options in response to a hijacking.
1. Shoot the plane down from high altitude over farm country.
2. Shoot the plane down from low altitude over cities and suburbs.
The ONLY play that saves the lives of the passengers involves the people on the plane when the door closes before take off. Why fight this war with both hands tied behind our back? Currently there are about 3.5 Million CCW holders in the US. In 6 months we could bring that up to 20 million, a lot of them being veterans and frequent business fliers. The cost of the operation goes down and the safety of airline passenger goes up through the roof!
Hoplophobes and govenment employee control freaks need to get over it! WE CANNOT PROTECT FREEDOM BY DENYING IT! We can best protect it by enhancing it!
Specific actions needed by Congress are:
1. Recognize CCW from ANY state in ALL states the same as any other local state or court ruling under the requirements of Article IV section 1 of the US Constitution.
2. Recognize the CCW in ALL locations! These must include airplanes, courthouses, other government property, stadiums, etc.
3. Enhance weapons safety training in all walks of life including schools, Scouts, summer camps, after school programs, etc. Providing this training is the responsibility of Congress under Article I Section 8 clauses 15 and 16 of the US Constitution.
4. Void foolish "weapons bans" in all public and commercial buildings. These only create a “Safe Haven” for criminals and terrorists while providing a target rich environment for them!
5. Make available to all those who choose to fly armed the appropriate ammunition and training. Many have trained themselves at their own expense, and it's foolish of Congress not to take advantage of that in this time of emergency. The frangible ammunition is a good choice even for most CCW locations NOT on airplanes. It is not commonly used for that now due to liability lawsuit issues. Because it dumps energy in a VERY fast manner it makes a really nasty wound channel plaintiff’s attorneys and misguided DAs love to hate.
6. Provide legal protection from liability similar to the "Good Samaritan" laws protecting first aid responders in other emergency situations if the CCW acted in good faith to protect him/her self and/or others. This should include the specific use of frangible ammunition similar to the Glaser “Safety Slugs”, Core-bon “Bee Safe”, and Remington “Disintegrator” lines.
Frangible ammunition will generally not penetrate the first thing hit, be it a person or a seat back. Protecting airplane vitals from this stuff is child's play compared to defending it against the full metal jacket projectiles used by many police units and the military. The protection can be as relatively inexpensive as a new layer of Kevlar wallpaper on the cabins and bulkheads. Protecting people from it is another matter, so this ammunition type still is effective against terrorists without compromising the airframe.
These actions aren't Politically Correct, but they WILL WORK!
For more information see:
http://www.remington.com/ammo/PAGES/pistolrev/disintegrator.htm
http://www.safetyslug.com/FAQs.htm
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/constitution/conart.html
and
http://www.m1911.org/ammo.htm#corbon