Ok, So assuming US airlines go with the idea of permitting their pilots to carry handguns, can someone explain to me just how they expect to use them.
If you are faced with the kind of nutcases who carried out the hijackings on Sept 11th, they will be so psyched up as the burst through the flightdeck door, knives in hand, ready to cut the throats of both pilots as swiftly as possible, that I don't believe even the fittest pilot will be able to react rapidly enough to get his gun out, let alone discharge it.
What is needed instead, is a complete and radical overall of airport serurity, particularly in the US, to ensure that no one, and I mean no one, is able to get anywhere near an aircraft with any kind of offensive weapon.
The most effective defense is that provided by a layered stategy. Passenger screening at check-in, effective passenger search procedures before getting to the lounge plus further random checks as passengers board the aircraft. In addiition, armed sky marshalls on all flights and a really secure cockpit door and closed circuit TV to see what's going down in the cabin.
In my view, speaking as an airline pilot who has been in this business for 35 years, armed pilots are not now, or ever will be, the answer to this problem, effective layered of security however is.
