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Saturday, November 5, 2011

Quote of the Day

"They really should allow guns on planes. If you're going to need one at school, in church and wherever, why wouldn't you need to defend yourself in the air? Besides, to be really second amendment-y, they should just hand out guns at check-in. You never know when someone wants to snatch your freedom." - Dave in a comment on Burro Hall.
Handing out guns at check-in is one way to deal with the threat of potential terrorists. Only problem is I am pretty sure a majority of air travelers would not know how to handle a firearm which would lead to a profusion of accidental discharges, which would not be a good thing. I wonder how many people in your average plane load do know how to handle any kind of gun, much less some random government issued handgun. I suspect the numbers would be pretty low, like zero, which means the terrorist, if there was one on the plane, would win, if he could outshoot the crew.


3 comments:

Ole Phat Stu said...

Stray bullets would down the plane by depressurising the cabin, hitting control cables, busting avionics etc, all without hitting a single person :-(

Dave said...

Hey Charles,

Just stumbled over to your blog from Burro Hall...a bit shocking to read my own comment! Of course it's total sarcasm. Our crime-ridden state (Wisconsin) just legalized concealed carry of weapons, and now wisely has decided that they can be carried into the state capitol, probably to save money on lobbyists. Frankly, it they're going to allow some of the gun nuts around here to be packing, they should at least feel the same level of "security" that the guy on the street has. And if that makes us safer, why not airplanes?

Chuck Pergiel said...

You have to be careful with sarcasm. Someone might not recognize it as such, which is why we so desperately need a sarcasm font.

Near as I can tell the whole air travel security thing is a complete farce. It doesn't bother me too much, I'm too cheap to go anywhere.

As for stray bullets, I doubt whether one or two, or even a dozen bullets from a handgun could bring down a modern airliner, given redundant controls etc. Now if all 300 people emptied the 15 round clip from their handgun into the air frame, well, they might succeed, but even then I think the odds would be about even.