Gun Owners Call for Arming Pilots
GOA is encouraged that Sen. Bob Smith from New Hampshire has joined Rep. Ron Paul from Texas in introducing legislation to permit pilots to carry firearms in the cockpit regardless of any law or regulation to the contrary.
The text of the GOA letter to the airline presidents follows:
Gun Owners of America, a 300,000 member organization, plans to issue a report in our next newsletter listing which airlines have agreed to allow their pilots to carry loaded firearms as a protection against terrorists.
According to 14 CFR 108.11(a)(1)(ii), you have the legal right to authorize pilots of your airline to carry “a deadly or dangerous weapon, either concealed or unconcealed.”
Many of the members of Gun Owners of America would actively seek out airlines that allow pilots to defend their lives, and consequently the lives of their passengers, against terrorists. I personally will go out of my way to fly on the airline(s) that have armed pilots.
I would also ask you to lobby the FAA to keep the present regulation in place, and to develop the procedures for pilots to follow, as called for in the regulation.
Accordingly, I plan to widely publicize, by means of both our newsletter and the Internet, those airlines which allow their pilots the practical means of self-defense and those which do not.
I look forward to your answer, in writing, at your earliest convenience.
Thank you for your time and attention to this letter.
Larry Pratt
Executive Director