Dumb as it might seem, consider this. A clever terrorist might arrange for an incident that in itself does not seem to be a planned hijack attempt just to identify the sky marshals. Once this has been accomplished, the marshals have to stay unholstered until the end of the flight. Terrorists who have yet to act know who and where the marshals are. Their only hope may well be to have gun in hand. These guys evidently did not behave well but, once they identified themselves they were in a scary situation.
Last edited by Flash2001; 24th Sep 2002 at 14:44.