I have been in an e-mail debate with some fool that claims to have been through the academy. I mentioned that one way to avoid future September 11 type incidents was to allow citizens to defend themselves. My reasoning is time-tested: if the bad guys don’t know who is armed they can’t control an entire airplane with one or two hijackers! Had just one person on each plane on September 11 been armed think of the lives that could have been saved!

Of course, being a total idiot he writes:

>>>and more will die by letting everyone have a weapon on a plane. I can just see them now, pulling out there weapons, to see which is bigger.<<<

Your statement is based on the supposition that citizens will act irresponsibly. In the years that Texas has had a concealed carry law, in the years that Florida has had it..(we could go on and on with that)…your statement has been proved wrong overall. The occasional civilian will screw up, but I’d be willing to bet that since Bush signed the carry law lots more Texas cops have screwed up with guns than Texas permit holders…a good example can be found in the two Harris County Deputies in the alley behind “Fuzzy’s” (a cop bar in Houston)
using a homeless man for some late night, drunken target practice! They weren’t trying to hit him, they later claimed, just make him jump a bit! This in downtown Houston with service size automatics…

>>>They will always continue to find ways. I say lets not make the situation worse, by giving drunks and stressed out people the right to bring a weapon on a plane<<<

again, if someone acts up with a weapon (including carry while intoxicated) prosecute their butt, if they do nothing wrong let them have a chance at life! Maybe the terrorists will find a way…but as it is they’ve already found this way and why should they change a winning hand? As long as you keep a ready supply of disarmed victims for them they have no reason to change!

>>>by giving drunks and stressed out people the right<<<

Wait a minute! Are we talking about the passengers on an aircraft or the 3-11 shift with any major police agency? Oh, and while we are at it how many bullet holes are in the stalls of the mens room at the Houston Police Department Southwest Station? So much for training….

If indeed you’ve been through the academy, and you still believe that private citizens don’t have the right to protect themselves whether on an airplane or on the ground then I urge you to go on patrol without your sidearm and vest. After all, your life is not any more valuable than your neighbor, is it? As a police officer, it is almost a given that you’ll defend yourself if attacked-why is it that you seem to feel civilians must line up and die when threatened?