[TheForge] O/T Survivor

[Andy Vida]

GHS wrote:
> 
> Darrell wrote:
> > If they would let people that have permits to carry guns keep their guns,
> > they wouldn't need the F16s.
> 
> Darrell, I am in favor of concealed carry laws, but I have to admit that
> the above sentence gave me pause.
> 
> I know the ultimate end, sooner or later, of the F16's. I am afraid that
> the armed passengers would have much the same result, only sooner.

	I'm not sure that is what he meant.  If it was, then I will
	say that while I am the greatest proponent of carrying weapons
	on the planet, I would be loathe to allow passengers to carry
	loaded firearms on a commercial aircraft.  Forget the fact
	that a non-trivial proportion of gun owners don't know what
	end the damned bullet comes out of; shit happens.  I've handled
	firearms for almost 40 years and even I had one AD where I blew
	a hole through my bedroom ceiling whilst unloading a 12 ga.  I
	am almost paranoically cautious when handling firearms and to my
	memory I would still swear that my hand was nowhere near the
	trigger when the gun went off.  So either I'm wrong and I pulled 
	the trigger, or the gun's mechanism failed.  Either way, shit
	happened.  Imagine that happening at 35,000 feet.  Not pretty.

	But carrying an unloaded gun aboard I see no problem with at all.
> 
> Overall, I would rather trust the pilots.

	It's not the pilots I don't trust.  It's the people ultimately
	pulling their strings that cannot be trusted to the door.  If
	a pilot is ordered to shoot down a target, they will do it.
	If those issuing the commands have doubts, it is easily arranged
	to shoot from far beyond visual range.  An order to clobber a
	bogey ID'd as hostile will never be questioned by a pilot.  An
	F-14 jock can take targets from 200 miles with Phoenix missiles.
	
	Fear not the puppet, but rather the puppeteers.