Umm JMCman,
Point 1
You should look at your ops manual. You can have armed passengers on your flight as part of a protective detail should you be carrying a passenger that requires protecting, like Tony, the Queen, the pope, Prince Charles etc... Atleast that was what the manual said when it was JMC, and before that Flying Colours, and before that airworld... So it is not EXACTLY illegal to carry a firearm aboard an aicraft. You just have to comply with quite a few procedures...
Of course you have to be notified in writing and know the seat location....
Point 2
Every American and United flight was stopped for 4 days, or have you forgotten that? And there have been intermittent stoppages, but usually because the aircraft starts from US controll WE can look at the pax first, and or quietly put as many skymarshals on the aircraft as the threat is deamed to require...
point 3
Yep if requested...
Cheers
Wino (Former JMC, Flying Colours, and Airworld Captain on the A320)
PS Grandpa, NO one just does a highdive anymore, Hopefully they coordinate it. If you are in the North Atlantic you have to turn off your track etc... and if you are in the USA you are going to declare an emergency and notify ATC. I have to question the competency of anyone that would just automatically pin that pax to the ceiling. Anything that explosively decompresses the cabin likely will have caused structural damage, Do you really want to come screaming down hill at barber pole with bloody great big holes in the side of the aircraft? taking 5 min to get to 10 thousand or 2 min won't make any difference to the pax long term health, but it might make a HUGE difference to the health of the airframe...