I'm with you Tripower and Roadtrip. All thispussyfooting around with improved screening procedures to identify passngers who pose a threat is all very well, but when are the Authorities going to recognise that a weapon of last resort will have to be allowed. Will a 747 have to crash into Westminster, (preferrably when the House is sitting to debate foxhunting) before our Government and others realise that if a suicide attack is to be thwarted, then risks will have to be taken. What price the risk to the travelling public, when the fighter has locked on to us with his Sidewinder. Those are the lengths the Governments are prepared to go to, yet they effect a liberal-left knee jerk as soon as you mention guns in the cockpit.
If the 747 is boring in towards your house where your wife and family are living, will you want the pilot to have a degree in psychology and a sweetly reasonable demeanour, or a semi-automatic pistol.