Well,
Transportation Secretary Mineta said just last night, that they are hiring
28,000 new federal employees, most of that number will be Sky Marshalls. He
said they got something like 80,000 applications for the job, so they
_should_ be able to get enough qualified recruits.
One part of President Bush's airline security plan is to allow all police
officers in the US to carry their weapons while flying (on vacations, etc).
We've had a debate here in the US for several years whether to allow a
'national carry bill' to be passed which would allow police to carry their
weapons throughout the country. As the laws are now, one can only carry his
weapon in the state that he is employed in (plus maybe 3 or 4 other states
that allow it). Nothing was ever decided HOW we get our guns to that other
state that would allow us to carry. It was always up to the airline pilot to
allow it or not on the plane. That was after the police officer went thru
several security checks at the terminal, the gate, etc; and several phone
calls, I.D. checks, etc. Most had no problem with allowing us to do so, they
just wanted to know who actually was carrying on the flight. Very very
rarely, I've heard of a captain requiring the officer to leave the weapon in
the cockpit during the flight.
It was a major pain to bring a weapon, so most of us didn't bother. Plus,
when you're going somewhere on vacation, what do you do with the gun when you
get to the vacation spot, not to mention while you're, say, on the beach?!
If you bring it, you're responsible for it 24 hours. What if you wish to have
a few drinks, which people have been known to do while vacationing?? :^) ?
And do you trust a hotel's room safe with something like that?
George S.
> >>I've carried on a pocket leatherman in the past, has scissors, small
> >>blade, etc. I just threw it in the basket with the coins, and have had
> >>no questions asked. I suspect those days are gone.
> >
> >Yeah - doesn't it make you feel much safer that now, in case there
> >happen to be some lunatic religious or other fanatics on a suicide
> >mission on your flight, you won't even have a pocket knife to oppose
> >them? :-(
> >
> >Seriously - I've sometimes wondered whether all these security
> >measures make sense. Wouldn't it be better, instead of trying to make
> >absolutely sure that no weapons, no paper cutters, no nail files,
> >etc., get on board (which, IMHO, is impossible, as recent events have
> >shown), to _require_ a certain percentage of the passengers (not
> >anyone, of course, but people like active or reserve military, police,
> >or others who carry weapons on their jobs or are otherwise licensed to
> >carry, some of which are on most flights anyway) to be armed? That
> >would most likely have prevented the hijackings and the horrible
> >terror of Sept. 9.
> >
> >In that context, it would be no more than an insignificant detail that
> >this would also be better for our films.
> >
> >
> >MtFbwy,
> >Volkhart
> >
>
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