On the eve of Sept. 11, Monday’s Poison Ink cartoon outrageously suggests that arming pilots is not a wise idea.

One year ago, it was inconceivable that anyone would commandeer a plane and use it as a missile. One year ago, pilots were taught to comply with hijackers’ demands. Sept. 11 changed reality and proved all our assumptions wrong, yet one year later the strongest form of defense pilots have is a handheld crash ax.

Painfully ironically, it was still legal for pilots to carry guns until July 2001. Would the terrorists have been able to accomplish the same horrific results with their box cutters had the pilots had guns?

A plane’s captain and first officer are the first line of deterrence and undisputedly the last and most vital line of defense against terrorist hijackers.

Perhaps the most compelling reason to arm pilots is this: Should a pilot lose control of his cockpit, the U.S. government will shoot down the plane. U.S. fighter jets will attack a plane full of their country’s own civilians: your mother, your father, your grandparents, your brother and sister. No questions asked; no hesitation.

Give pilots the ability and the right to effectively defend themselves and their planes. How many millions of lives will be different tomorrow?

Andrea Rheinhart

Sophomore

Management