Originally Posted by
sycamore
Why would you allow idiots with loaded weapons to get onboard in the first place.......? and in the front seat...? do you have to have an `endorsement` to live-fire from a helo.....?
You are forgetting that this is in America and, even more importantly, Texas
Actually, hunting from aircraft and vehicles is generally illegal nearly everywhere in the US. However, it has proven to be such an efficient method of eradicating the hogs that Texas, and so far only Texas, has explicitly made it legal (for hogs only).
There are also many places in the US where you can fire weapons from helicopters at regular targets on a large firing range and they do big business.
While this all might seem to be insanely dangerous to folks who have not grown up steeped in gun culture, i.e. pretty much everywhere except the US these days, it's really not all that difficult to do with a level of safety high enough to make any untoward event as rare as, say, an aircraft accident. And, like any other intrinsically dangerous activity, such as SCUBA, skydiving, motorcycling, skiing (dare I mention flying helicopters?) it takes proper training, discipline and oversight. People have figured these things out because obviously it can and is being done safely.
Of course there is an emotional aspect to all this that tends to color people's perceptions. If poor Joe got smashed on his motorcycle, maybe took another vehicle or two and their occupants along for the ride, or broke his leg on a ski slope, maybe colliding with and injuring others, people would be sympathetic. If Joe shot himself in the foot in Nevada shooting stuff from helicopters, or put a round through a skid tube, it would be the end of life as we know it, right? Because aviation is special and guns are bad...