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CNN Live Today

Should Pilots Carry Guns?

Aired April 30, 2002 - 14:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Security inside the cockpit has been a contentious matter since 9/11. Now two Republican lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would allow pilots to carry guns. Patty Davis in Washington, on the aviation beef for us. Patty, good afternoon.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill. Well, those two Republican leaders are leaders of the House transportation committee, John Mica and Don Young. And they say that pilots should be allowed to have guns in the cockpits to fight terrorists.

They think the Transportation Security Administration, which has the power to block guns in the cockpit, has been dragging its feet. So they're proposing a bill that would bypass the agency. Under this bill, the pilots would, on a volunteer basis, be deputized as federal flight deck officers.

The pilots and airlines for the pilots -- say that they would use those guns in good faith and they would be -- they would not have any liability in that case. Now, if the bill passed, you could see armed pilots within four months. They would have to undergo criminal background checks and have their weapon and ammunition approved by the transportation secretary.

Now, most airlines say that guns in the cockpits are a bad idea. United Airlines, for instance, is training its pilots to use stun guns as a non-lethal alternative, although that's not yet approved. Safety experts worry that bullets fired in an aircraft could hurt the avionics, for one thing. Could hit other passengers, and that pilots' guns could fall into terrorists' hands.

But the largest pilot's union says that lethal force is the only way to stop terrorists -- Bill.

HEMMER: On a different topic, the first federal screeners at airports today across the country -- where have they been dispatched and what's the fallout from it?

DAVIS: Well, Baltimore-Washington International airport, and that is the first all-federal checkpoint. There are actually two peers there at that airport. About 200 federal workers, as you see, screening. This is part of the federal government's takeover of security screening at the nation's airports. It's going to start here and it's going to move on to other airports as well. The hope: to make security screening even better. These people will be better paid, better trained. And the hope, that that front line to stop terrorists will be even stronger -- Bill.

HEMMER: Patty, thanks. Patty Davis in Washington.

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