Ferrari Mailing List: NFC: Clyde, Look who wants to take your Gun away

[Rick (Forza355]

Obama Wants to Disarm U.S. Pilots
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:19 PM

By: David A. Patten 


     

The Obama administration is taking steps quietly to shut down the program that 
qualifies commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in jetliner cockpits in 
order to ward off another 9/11-type attack. 

The administration recently diverted $2 million from a program to train and 
certify pilots to carry firearms safely while on duty. Instead, it is using the 
money to hire additional field inspectors to help discipline pilots who step 
out of line, according to a report in Tuesday's Washington Times. 

A Times editorial condemned the Obama administration's action, calling it 
"completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots." 

Since Obama took office, the approval process for certifying pilots to carry 
firearms has ground to a halt, the newspaper reports. Pilots are afraid to 
speak out about the behind-the-scenes maneuverings, for fear of retaliation, 
according to the newspaper. No cases have been reported in which pilots have 
brandished a weapon inappropriately or otherwise abused their eligibility to 
carry firearms. 

About 12,000 pilots have been authorized to carry handguns while flying 
aircraft as part of the Federal Flight Deck Officers Program. Congress 
authorized the program in a 310-to-113 vote following the 9/11 attacks to help 
prevent terrorists from turning jetliners into flying bombs that could be used 
to attack key sites like the White House, the Pentagon, or Capitol Hill. 

Paul Valone, a Second Amendment advocate who directs Grass Roots North Carolina 
(GRNC.org), is calling for citizens to contract their congressional 
representatives to protest the administration's anti-gun priorities. 

Pilots are already required to pay for their own room and board during 
training, and use paid leave for the time they're off the job. Every six 
months, the program requires them to be requalified for firearm use. 

Valone writes on Examiner.com: "While bureaucrats . . . may have attempted to 
hamstring the program with burdensome requirements, training instructors and 
the Federal Air Marshals who now oversee the program routinely thank the FFDOs 
for their professionalism and dedication in protecting the nation's air 
commerce against terrorism." 

Valone says the Obama administration is "dismantling yet another layer of 
defense against terrorism and defying the will of the American people." 

Since coming to power, the Obama administration has undertaken a series of 
moves that signal a major de-emphasis of programs enacted to keep America's 
homeland safe from terrorist attack: 


a.. Obama's choice for U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, labeled enhanced 
interrogation techniques as outright "torture" during his Senate confirmation 
hearings. 


a.. Obama banned waterboarding and ordered CIA interrogators to abide by U.S. 
Army Field Manual regulations. 


a.. He selected Clinton-era political operative Leon Panetta to serve as his 
CIA director. Panetta's qualifications to run the agency have been questioned 
widely. 


a.. Obama announced that he would shut down the Guantanamo Bay detention 
facility in Cuba within one year, raising the prospect of hardened terrorists 
entering the U.S. criminal justice system, or worse, being released to rejoin 
al-Qaida. 


a.. He indicated the U.S. defense budget would be sharply reduced. 


a.. He has sent a letter to Russian leaders, apparently offering to back off on 
the ballistic missile defense system that would protect Europe from Iran and 
North Korea. 

These and other Obama administration moves recently prompted former vice 
president Dick Cheney to charge that Obama is returning to the Clinton-era view 
of terrorism as a law enforcement issue. 

"Now he's made some choices that in my mind raise the risk to the American 
people of another attack," Cheney said of Obama on CNN's "State of the Union" 
program. 

The Washington Times points out that about 70 percent of airline pilots have 
military backgrounds. With airport screening less than 100 percent effective, 
it states, armed pilots provide a second layer of defense. 

"Only anti-gun extremists and terrorist recruits are worried about armed 
pilots," the newspaper editorial says. 












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