Bolstered by a 310-113 vote in the House of Representatives on July 10, proponents of a bill that would arm commercial airline pilots are pushing for quick action in the US Senate.
Lining up behind the legislation supported by pilots and flight attendants unions and about three-quarters of the public are the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA).
Under the legislation, HR-4635, sponsored by Reps. Don Young (R-AK) and John Mica (R-FL), any of the nation’s 70,000 commercial pilots could volunteer for the training and background screening necessary to qualify to carry a handgun in the cockpit.
There had been an earlier move in committee to limit the number of pilots allowed to arm themselves, and create a two-year “trial program,” with the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) instructed to research how well the concept worked and decide whether or not it should be continued. But significant provisions on the bill were changed during open debate on the floor of the House when an amendment by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) passed 251-172. The normally anti-gun DeFazio’s amendment allowed for arming all volunteer commercial airline pilots who were trained, eliminated the two-year limit, and gave the airlines a big umbrella of protection from liability suits.
“There are standing orders from the president of the United States that a plane taken over will be shot down,” said DeFazio, during the debate. “Why not have this last line of defense?”
“If they’d had the ability to defend themselves (on Sept. 11),” said Mica, “we could have saved destruction; we could have saved lives.”
A bi-partisan companion bill, S-2554, has been stalled in the Senate by anti-gun Sen. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings (D-SC), the committee chairman who has refused to hold hearings on that legislation. Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) head John Magaw, all oppose arming pilots. As a result of their previously stated opposition to arming pilots, President Bush has been reported by the media as also opposing the concept. However, while White House aides refer the media to the statements of the Administration’s appointees, Bush himself has not spoken out on the issue himself.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb has issued a call to CCRKBA members and the public to contact their senators and demand action. He acknowledged to Gun Week that getting the bill through the Senate will be a hard fight.
“Between Hollings and anti-gunners like Mineta, Magaw and Ridge, we know that it will be a tough job to get this legislation passed,” Gottlieb stated.
CCRKBA led the battle for armed pilots, originally recommending that action on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, within hours of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC. Within days, the first of many bills proposing guns in the cockpit was introduced, and within two weeks, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) had also begun its campaign for guns in the cockpit.
It wasn’t long before the NRA joined the battle; no surprise since Young is a member of the NRA board of directors. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Gun Week that opposition to the bill is fierce, especially from the airline companies.
“They lobbied this thing like crazy,” he said. “I’ve been personally in the trenches (arguing) with them. We’ve had some very heated words.”
LaPierre concurred with Gottlieb that top officials in the Bush Administration are helping fuel the opposition fight.
“Mineta and Magaw don’t like guns, period,” LaPierre said. “They have never liked guns.”
However, some sources predict that, despite published White House opposition to armed pilots, if the Senate passes this bill, Bush will sign it.
That question may be answered sooner rather than later, as LaPierre predicted the legislation could come up for Senate consideration before the August recess.
Sens. Bob Smith (R-NH) and Conrad Burns (R-MT), co-sponsors of the Senate bill, S-2554, may try to add it as an amendment to a bill that turns Homeland Security into a cabinet-level position and creates a new Homeland Security Department. It may also be attached as an amendment to any of several appropriations bills that are still pending.
Strong Support
Strong lobbying not only by gun rights organizations but by the pilots and flight attendants unions and travelers appeared to tilt the House vote significantly, and could prove a key factor in the Senate. Recent revelations about lax airport security, and the low number of air marshals available for flights hurt the opposition, when pilots and pro-gunners noted that only about 1% of all flights on any given day may have an armed marshal aboard.
Many anti-gunners voted in favor of the House bill, and even Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has expressed support for arming pilots (click to read Hindsight column on Page 15).
Joe Waldron, CCRKBA executive director, explained the argument simply: “Not every airplane has a sky marshal, but they all have pilots.”
Young championed the bill, noting that the flying public has become frustrated with the lack of progress on airport and airline security. Young has been particularly critical of alleged “foot dragging” on security at TSA, and Magaw’s opposition to arming pilots.
Quoted by The Washington Post, Young put it bluntly: “You (TSA) either shape up or we’re going to start passing legislation to get you to do what should be done.”
LAX Shooting
The July 4 shooting at Los Angeles International Airport’s El Al ticket counter brought more support for the bill and urgency for its passage. Many Americans expressed astonishment that the FBI—which appears to have fumbled warnings from field agents about Middle Eastern men seeking flying lessons from various American flight schools prior to the Sept. 11 attacks—was reluctant to call the shooting a “terrorist attack.”
Ironically, the first legislation enacted by Congress that included a provision for arming pilots was the same aviation security bill that created the TSA and gave Magaw—a career Washington, DC, bureaucrat who is the former head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Secret Service—his current job. Magaw has come under heavy criticism for paying more attention to decorating his office with expensive furnishings than he has to addressing airline security needs.
Just how tough a Senate fight is looming is pure speculation. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has reportedly “not made up his mind” about the bill. Daschle’s wife, however, could become an issue in the argument, as she has been a lobbyist for American Airlines.
Opponents are already lobbying the Senate, too. The anti-gun Violence Policy Center (VPC) issued a critique of the measure the day it was passed. In its statement, VPC argued that it remains, “in strong opposition to guns of any kind in the cockpits of our nation’s passenger planes.”
The VPC dredged up the classic anti-gun argument that if an intended victim is armed, the assailant will take the handgun away, by saying, “Those contemplating terrorism will know that a gun is available and will act accordingly—and the terrorists will usually have the element of surprise on their side.”
The VPC statement also included the claims that “One study found that 21% of officers killed with a handgun were shot with their own service weapon;” and
“Trained law enforcement officials have only an 18 to 22% hit ratio in armed confrontations. The cramped quarters of a cockpit do not lend themselves to success.”
Gottlieb dismissed that rhetoric, noting, “The VPC is against guns of any kind, anywhere, especially in the hands of people who might use them to defend themselves, whether it’s against drug-crazed criminals or just plain crazy terrorists.”
Airlines Still Opposed
In spite of the House bill’s immunity from liability suits, the airlines are still opposing arming pilots.
Allowing pilots to carry guns might prevent the government from taking other steps to strengthen airline security, the chairman of American Airlines said the day after the vote, according to Associated Press.
American Chairman Donald Carty said the time spent drafting rules and training pilots would come at the expense of other, more effective actions to protect passengers.
Carty also praised congressional efforts to let airports miss the year-end deadline for screening checked baggage as long as they drafted security plans that included completion dates.
Directors of 39 airports recently signed a letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, asking him to delay the deadline. The government plans to meet the deadline through use of a combination of minivan-sized explosive detection machines and smaller equipment that detects traces of explosives on baggage.
Mica, chairman of the House Transportation Committee’s aviation panel, said the government was not going to make the deadline.
“They can also go to Disney World and get a wand and run it over the bags and if it isn’t detecting explosives, you’ve spent a lot of money on a fantasy approach,” Mica said.
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