Gordo's Brain

Well, I certainly feel safer when I fly: airline pilots have been permitted to carry .40 calibre handguns, with FAA-mandated training, since shortly after 9/11. Naturally, it’s a secret how many have done the training and how many are carrying, but it doesn’t really matter. The boss of the plane can take care of those dangerous, scary hijackers that have plagued the air system in recent years.

Oh, right. There haven’t been any have there?Well! The decetrrent factor must be working, then. Because, you know a fanatical nutbar who’s intent on killing hundreds of people in an airliner won’t carry through their plans if they know that the pilot might have a pistol. Right?

But, what if the pilot is the danger?

A gun carried by a US Airways pilot accidentally discharged in the cockpit Saturday during a flight from Denver to Charlotte, N.C., the Transportation Safety Administration said Monday.

The incident, which occurred as Flight 1536 was preparing to land, marked the first time that a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots had been fired.

Oops. Must have been a malfunction of the gun.

Gun safety expert Ronald Scott, a ballistics expert who served for 25 years with the Massachusetts State Police, said the gun wouldn’t discharge accidentally if dropped or jarred in some way.

“It’s a top-of-the-line model,” Scott said. “They’re accurate and highly reliable. This is not something that you would just walk into a gun store and buy. And it’s also not something that goes off by itself. … Someone would have to squeeze the trigger.”

Oh. I stand corrected.

From the Associated Press via The Toronto Star

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