Just a thought.
What happens if you have say 5 or 6 of these armed officials travelling off duty on a flight, and also the flight is protected by armed sky marshals?
Suppose there was trouble, if even 1 or 2 of these chicken inspectors etc decided to "help out", they may be mistaken by the sky marshals as being with the hijackers?
Also all these people carrying guns on board, I take it that they have "normal" ammunition in their weapons, NOT special ammunition like the sky marshals?
Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.