Barack Obama, who seems to me more and more to resemble Jimmy Carter with a tan, is stealthily trying to terminate the program permitting commercial airline pilots to carry handguns begun in April of 2003 by diverting $2 million from the qualification training program to hire “supervisory” staff, whose job, it appears, will be to harass armed pilots through unnecessary field inspections.
The Washington Times has an editorial.
And Kim Priestap, at Wizbang, remarks:
Every time I turn around I read about a new, irrational, idiotic, incompetent, and harmful program that Barack Obama wants to implement.
Alan Gottlieb, at Citizens’ Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, responded with well-justified indignation:
How dare the president, or anybody in his administration, take measures to erode the safety of air travelers,†Gottlieb questioned. “The armed pilot program provides a guaranteed level of security to the public. There may or may not be an air marshal aboard every airplane, but there is definitely a pilot in the cockpit.
“We trust commercial airline pilots with $500 million aircraft,†he continued. “We can certainly trust them with $500 pistols to defend those planes, and the lives of their passengers.
“Certain individuals have never liked the armed pilot program,†Gottlieb acknowledged. “These anti-gun, anti-self-defense bureaucrats seem more interested in their own power, and protecting their little empires, than they are in protecting the public. And now, Obama is catering to their anti-gun bigotry.â€
S.L. from Illinois
Impeachment proceedings must be taken immediately to save us from this Muslim terrorist of a President. Even more alarming are the actions of a Congress who is so ignorant of their actions, so reckless with our money and so blatantl in ignoring the will of the people that they should all be fired. God help us please!
marvin weaver
USA born July 4 1776 died Nov 4 2008.
Bill M.
You know, as a pilot, I’m a little confused. I’ve been hearing this “gun ban†story. Yesterday, I heard “do you hear what Obama is planning†from my copilot. As he asked that question, my Colt was in my bag in the compartment above my head. (I know, I should keep it with me, but it digs into my hip when I sit down.)
This afternoon, I’m in a hotel room with my laptop. (We don’t fly out for another four hours.) I’m reading this story everywhere, but it all seems to track back to the Washington Times. That, and other blogs, are the only sources I’m finding.
In my email, there’s nothing to tell me that my gun can’t go with me. Don’t even have one of those twice-a-week emails telling me that there’s new paperwork I have to fill out.
And then I found this on Fox News.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/18/federal-officials-deny-report-pilot-gun-program-end/
I’m thinking that somebody at the Moonie paper got his wires crossed. There doesn’t seem to be anything to this story.
JDZ
The Obama Administration was diverting funding for the qualification program to inspectors targeting existing permit holders theoretically assuring no new permits would be forthcoming. They have evidently backtracked a bit in response to the policy being commented on.
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