The fearsome words of the British police officer in hot pursuit of a suspect..."Halt, or I'll yell 'Halt' again!"
I've just read this thread where you discuss 'seriously' the rights and wrongs of a pilot who fires a bullet through the aircraft. And you are worried about terrorists and 'homeland security'.
That made no sense.
The FFDO program exists for one purpose only, and that's final defense of the cockpit in the event of a cockpit breach.
It's happened before (you might recall 09/11...it was in the papers...). Good reason exists for arming pilots.
You find humor in discussing an incident in which a pilot failed to follow protocol and created an unsafe condition, thereby jeopardizing a good and valueable program? You find irony with this in comparison to homeland security? The FFDO program is part of homeland security. The pilot in this case would not have had a negligent discharge if he had followed procedure. Firearms do not discharge themselves.
This is an isolated incident. It is not reflective upon the purpose nor safety of the program. The pilot who failed to follow procedure has been fired.
Others can try to drag union issues and all manner of non-sequitor, ridiculous arguements into the picture...but the bottom line is the pilot screwed up, the pilot lost his job. It really doesn't matter what kind of legal support he might get or ought to get...he ought to lose his job for firing a handgun in the cockpit, period. And he has lost his job. End of story.