March 4, 2002

KeepAndBearArms.com — Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta won't allow pilots to carry guns. He says he will allow them to carry stun guns instead, provided they are "properly trained."

Who does this arrogant boob think he is? Who does he think he's talking to, children?

Pilots, if you're serious about your rights, it's time to take them. It's time to ground all flights until the servants get back to their job, that is, working for you and the passengers entrusted to your experience, judgment and skill.

Refuse to fly — all of you. Walk out now. Tell Norman and the cowardly airline executives backing his hand that THEY can fly the planes.

You can bring this country to a halt. They don't have anywhere near the pilots to replace you and they know it. They'll cave in within days, not out of principle, but out of sheer political panic over the disruption THEY will have publicly caused, and because they know they will rightfully be blamed. If they try to intimidate you with prosecution for not obeying a back-to-work decree, stand firm — public opinion will kill that threat quickly.

As pilots, it is YOUR duty to ensure the safety of your aircraft — and the government won't let you. Yet it's been proven that airline security measures are as dismally unworkable as ever, and after-the-fact investigations are hopelessly compromised by politics.

• Look at the arrests at Logan Airport, the launchpad for 911, almost SIX MONTHS after the terror flights.

• Observe how security tests routinely prove guns and explosives can be smuggled past checkpoints, where incompetent and ill-trained martinets, drunk on their new authority, grope women to cop a feel and hassle octogenarian Medal of Honor winners (rather than offend leftist sensibilities through the politically incorrect practice of "profiling," that is noting the physical characteristics of the terrorists and screening passengers accordingly).

• Take comfort that these newly-federalized "professionals" sleep in front of monitors and close down airports because the damned metal detectors are unplugged — you couldn't make this stuff up.

• Note how it now looks like one of the terrorists may have had a gun on Flight 11 (hell, note how they all got on board after going through "airport security"), which, if proven, means somebody is LYING to us — and if they are, why should we believe them about Flight 800, where witnesses who reported seeing a missile were summarily dismissed or not even interviewed, or Flight 593, or... ?

You are being hogtied by absurd bureaucrats whose prime directive is, astoundingly, to protect lives and property. Reconcile all of this against your first line of onboard defense: untrained genteel American passengers armed with pillows and laptops vs. fanatical commandos who are inured to hardships, experts at mortal combat, filled with hatred, and who WANT to die. Then take comfort that, after your "defenses" have been breached, you will be blown out of the skies by American fighter jets. But perhaps, if you're still alive as smoke and flames fill the cabin and your craft dives screaming towards a cornfield, you'll take comfort in the "Let's Roll!" logo on your destroyer's fuselage, and your final agony, rage and terror will be mitigated with a surge of patriotic pride.

You are being disarmed by people who know damn well they cannot disarm the enemy. Their protestations of "safety" are a sham. WE know that someone who can pilot a plane is more than qualified to handle a gun — and with at least one world class firearms training operation offering free pilot training, any excuse to keep you disarmed is a politically motivated lie that can be exposed through a simple demonstration: Invite one of the overlords to challenge a Front Sight graduate in a stun gun vs. handgun exhibition. And while you're at it, invite them to show everyone exactly how they intend to take away your gun.

Assuming responsibility for the safety of your passengers, crew and craft while knowing the facts goes beyond willful negligence — it is madness. Yet if you refuse, it won't be YOU who are voiding any contracts — the government and your employers already have, by failing to live up to their responsibilities, and by maintaining what is clearly a massive fraud.

Ground 'em. Talk to your colleagues and get a consensus. Sit your union reps down and force them to represent you. Craft a declaration defining your demands and then develop flu symptoms — all of you. You'll soon find out who is really in charge.

And I'm not just talking about arming yourself on domestic flights-- because terrorists respect no borders. Your demands must include the right to bear arms on international flights as well-- and if a country doesn't want to accept your terms, they can go without service from America. They'll soon find their economies need us worse than we need them.

As a matter of fact, since it's YOU who are in the pilots' seats, don't just stop with your demand to be armed — you have the upper hand, so have some fun with it. Why not also require Secretary Mineta's bodyguards to give up their firearms — tell 'em they can have stun guns. And as long as you've got their attention, give yourselves a raise.

You're holding all the cards. It's time to play them. You don't need their permission, they need yours. Atlas, it's time to shrug.