If I've got the sort of back up that an EL AL pilot has I will be quite happy to concentrate on flying and leave my involvement with guns to the shooting range at the weekend. Im sure the sky marshalls are far more proficient with weapons than any pilot could ever hope to be.
It isn't going to happen though ,can you imagine businessmen in a rush having to check in 2 hours before a 30 minute flight ,trains would be quicker.And what about the cost of all this additional security ,airlines could never afford it. It would break the industry.
At the moment, 20 months on from the attacks, I believe less than 10% of flights in the USA carry sky marshalls. In other words there is a greater than 90% chance of NOT having armed back up on board ,very reasonable odds if you're a terrorist. All those boxes of tweezers and nail clippers confiscated from old ladies don't reassure me that a weapon couldn't be taken on board.
However 100% of flights carry pilots and in the absence of a massive security upgrade to defend us and our aircraft we should be trained and allowed to defend ourselves.
Prehaps some of those who answered the poll that guns were useless and the pilots should concentrate on getting the aircraft on the ground could explain how they are supposed to do it if they are dead.