Under poorly thought out directives this padlock shackle must rest across the trigger of every flight deck officer’s service pistol. This lock clearly causes accidental discharges. No trigger lock maker has ever made a device for use on a loaded gun. Using this padlock as a trigger lock was a poor and dangerous idea for anyone much less pilots of our air carriers. Requiring pilots to lock and unlock the padlocks on airplanes is very risky. The locks turn the FFDO's defensive weapon into a deadly booby-trap.
Must someone be killed first? This is really very simple to correct by recalling the padlocks and ordering the FFDO pilots to quit using them.
The proper way to insure that the pilot’s guns stay safe and secure is for them to keep them in a belt or shoulder holster at all times. That would end the unnecessary handling of the firearms altogether. It’s such a simple concept even a TSA director should be able to understand.
Comments
Dave Mackett's own numbers say the system is safer than driving a car...
From the Washington Times blog:
"Let's look at the numbers:
Dave Mackett's APSA site says there are 28,000 flights a day and that less than 3% have 2 armed pilots aboard (I will call it 2.5% for argument's sake). DV (above) says pilots must handle the weapon 12 times per day.
28,000 X 0.025 = 700 flights per day with two armed pilots aboard.
700 X 2 = 1400 armed pilots are in the air each day.
1400 pilots X 12 weapon handlings per day = 16800 times per day FFDO's handle weapons.
That is 6,132,000 times FFDO's handle the weapon per year.
So there has been one discharge out of all of those weapon handlings. My calculator does not have enough decimal places to calculate a percentage that small.
So, we will just say that a pilot has a ONE in SIX MILLION chance of causing a weapon to discharge while flight with the holster and regulations that are currently in place."
There is a word for people like that....Assholes!