07-13-2002
CONGRESS: House Agrees to Arm Airline Pilots Making a strong statement in the debate over how to best prevent future
suicide hijackings, the House voted overwhelmingly on July 10 to allow
airline pilots to carry firearms in cockpits. "Do you really think
that 9/11 would have happened if our pilots had been armed?" asked
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young,
R-Alaska, who sponsored the legislation that the House passed 310-113.
Initially, Young and other key lawmakers had agreed on a compromise plan
to create a two-year test program that would have armed just 1,400 (or 2
percent) of pilots. But the House approved an amendment by Rep. Peter
DeFazio, D-Ore., that expanded the eligibility to all trained and
qualified pilots. The bill mandates that pilots who want to carry guns
must receive gun training from the Transportation Security Administration.
It would reverse the TSA's decision in May not to arm pilots. But the
legislation's prospects are uncertain. In addition to the Bush
administration's opposition, many key senators also are against arming
pilots, including Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, D-S.C., the chairman of the
Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, who won't allow such a
measure to come up for a vote. Nevertheless, Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., and
13 other senators have introduced a bill to arm pilots, and they plan to
try to tack it on as an amendment to other pending legislation.
Mark Murray/National Journal
National Journal
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