Comment from your payload
I am fully behind BALPA. I guess their question is: What is the point of these armed aircrew guards? To have a deterrent effect you have to train and fly a great many so that there is a high probability that the terrorist mission will fail. You could get up to the standards of the Israelis as already discussed.
If you can't support that many guards then you've got to use intelligence to decide which flights to cover, which ones are believed to be at risk. This currently leads to the delays and cancellations we have seen. Once the guards are used instead, the passengers and flight crew are effectively being used as bait because the flight has been allowed to proceed.
I will not be flying on an airline that allows itself to be used in this way.