Bush against arming pilots. (Insider Report).Owing much of its political base to gun rights supporters, the Bush administration is now reluctantly beginning to show its true colors. Beginning very soon after September 11th, the Bush administration has been dropping hints that it won't allow pilots or members of airline crews to carry firearms. President Bush himself was "cool to the idea," according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a very early report. Now the Bush administration has made it very clear that, in spite of the horrors of September 11th, the federal government intends to continue its irrational policy of maintaining commercial airliners as Second Amendment-free zones. Never mind that an armed passenger or crew member might have averted the September 11th attacks On September 11, 2001, in the deadliest case of domestic Terrorism in the history of the United States, a group of 19 terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners for use as missiles against targets in New York City and Washington, D.C. . On March 2nd, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told an interviewer from the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). that he's opposed to pilots' demands for firearms in cockpits for self-defense. Two days later, Homeland Security Noun 1. Homeland Security - the federal department that administers all matters relating to homeland security Department of Homeland Security executive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States Director Tom Ridge Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 27 1945 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives (1983–1995), Governor of Pennsylvania (1995–2001), Assistant to the President for Homeland Security told USA Today's Judy Keen, "I don't think we want to equip our pilots with firearms. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me." Responding to a question from a reader, an airline pilot who asked "Why can I not have one last chance to save my passengers and crew?" Ridge replied, "Where do you stop?" He added that if pilots were allowed to carry guns, then railroad engineers and bus drivers might also ask to be allowed to do so. Although the Air Line Pilots Association is in favor of letting properly trained pilots carry firearms voluntarily, the Bush administration is apparently willing to authorize only stun guns in the cockpit. White House officials informed USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. that Ridge's comments reflect "the thinking of President Bush," even though the president himself so far has made no public statements on the matter. |
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