(Wednesday, March 5, 2003) -- U.S. Senators Jim Bunning (R-KY) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced legislation this week to arm the nation's cargo pilots.
This is legislation that is desperately needed.
Congress did pass legislation last year to allow ALL pilots to voluntarily possess a firearm in the cockpit. But several congressmen worked in the dark of night to exclude cargo pilots after the bill went to a conference committee -- thus creating a gaping loophole that any future terrorist can fly through.
Even Sen. Boxer, who is better known as a leader of the anti-gun movement, could see the problems with this last minute change. She spoke out on this issue at a press conference that she attended with Sen. Bunning and a group of more than ten airline pilots -- many of them from APSA (Airline Pilot's Security Alliance) and CAPA (Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations).
"In many cases, cargo planes have less security than passenger planes," Boxer said. "It makes them tempting targets for terrorists."
The Bunning-Boxer bill (S. 516) would address this glaring weakness in the country's national security. A companion bill was introduced in the House by pro-gun Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), which will be reported on in more detail in the coming days.
The Senate bill already has 14 cosponsors, but many more will be needed to show the Senate leadership that this issue should be taken up and voted on quickly as a safeguard against future acts of terrorism.
The current cosponsors are as follows:
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Ben Campbell (R-CO)
Larry Craig (R-ID)
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
James Inhofe (R-OK)
Don Nickels (R-OK)
Zell Miller (D-GA)
George Allen (R-VA)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
Urgent action is needed to get many more cosponsors.
Action: Please forward this alert to your friends and coworkers. Then visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send a pre-written e-mail message to your two Senators. Urge them to cosponsor S. 516, a bill that will arm cargo pilots and protect our skies (and tall buildings) from terrorist attacks.
Dear Senator:
If you believe, as I do, that safeguarding our planes from terrorists is important, I hope you will cosponsor S. 516 -- a bill to arm cargo pilots. This is common-sense legislation, which even Senator Barbara Boxer (D) from California has cosponsored.
Had the pilots of the doomed aircraft on 9-11-01 had access to firearms, those attacks could have been thwarted and thousands of American lives saved. It is true that commercial pilots are now allowed to carry firearms in the cockpit. But the law contains a gaping loophole that future terrorists can fly through.
By not allowing cargo pilots to arm themselves -- similar to commercial pilots -- future terrorists can easily commandeer a cargo plane and inflict just as much damage as we saw almost two years ago.
Please close the airplane loophole now. Cosponsor S. 516 so that terrorists will never be able to hijack a cargo plane and take the lives of innocent Americans.
Sincerely,