Hi Apollo
Just a little history...
NWA mail pilots carried arms officially, up until the '60's.
Some AC pilots armed themselves after our first hijacking, I know, I was there. I spoke, read drank, with many US pilots who admitted carrying arms in their flight bags into the '70's.
Remember that it was probably more or less legal (?) in those days to carry arms.
There was great discussion among the world pilot group in those days as whether or not the carrying of arms was a good idea. Sound familiar..
We are in a new century and things have taken a very tragic turn. What to do? I don't know...Every solution seems to present unforeseen other problems.