Quote from Dick Moser:
Guns in the cockpit? Pilots carrying guns? Nonsense! Any professional pilot who subscribes to this notion has forgotten the first rule of being an aviator ... FLY THE AIRPLANE. Pilots have no business leaving their post to quell an uprising in the cabin. Better to make the cockpit impregnable so the pilots can carry out their primary responsibility ... FLY THE AIRPLANE.
Here is a better plan. Let's train the flight attendents to carry out a sky marshal's job. Let the flight attendents carry guns. Train flight attendents to use firearms.
Dick,
The first rule of aviation is FLY THE AIRPLANE! The whole idea of arming pilots is to insure that the pilots are able to continue to FLY THE AIRPLANE! The only flaw in your "FLY THE AIRPLANE" logic is that once Abdul gets in the cockpit, it will be HIM that flys the plane. Unless there is a reliable way of preventing him from taking it, the airplane is his. There is no such thing as an impregnable cockpit in any current airliner. As far as quelling disturbances in the cabin, that's not the job of the pilots. You are kidding about arming flight attendants, aren't you?
Chuck,
You SURE you're not "anti American"?