I don't know how many of you are familiar with this group. I've been subscribing to it for a couple years now. For those of you who are unaware, airline pilots use to be allowed to carry weapons in the cockpit until congress passed a law some years back prohibiting it. If they had still been allowed to be armed those hijacked airliners from 9/11 most likely would not have been successfully hijacked and thousands of lives could have been saved.
Please read on:
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Action Alert! April 6, 2004
S. 2268 in the U.S. Senate and companion bill HR. 4126 in the House of Representatives, the Cockpit Security Technical Corrections and Improvements Act of 2004, is pending to fix the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program (FFDO) and train America’s airline pilots to defend their passengers against terrorism, in a fast, efficient, standardized manner.
The TSA has used the discretion Congress gave it in the current law to deliberately sabotage the present FFDO program, disqualifying former police officers, federal agents and military pilots from participating, and operating only a single small training facility.
Ten of thousands of pilots have changed their minds about volunteering since TSA unilaterally added its own onerous requirements to Congress’ law. Thus, almost three years after 9/11, only 300 pilots in our country are armed on any given day to protect against terrorism on the 35,000 daily flights.
Complete information is available at
www.secure-skies.org.
Get Energized! This will be a difficult fight, requiring maximum, sustained effort, but we WILL win it – and the reward will be never having to live another 9/11 again, and restoring integrity to airline travel! Please do ALL of the following, and do it now:
***Please voice your strong support for this legislation and forward this Action Alert on to every email address you have!***
Contact your Senators by fax, email AND phone, to ask them to support S. 2268, and your representatives to support H.R. 4126, the Cockpit Security Technical Corrections and Improvement Act.
If the bill’s cosponsors, Senator Bunning (R-KY), Senator Boxer (D-CA), Senator Burns (R-MT) or Congressman Wilson (D-SC) are your state or district representatives, thank them profusely for their strong stand against terrorism. If they are not your reps, you may FAX or EMAIL, but DO NOT CALL THEM BY PHONE. We don’t want 40,000 members to tie up their phone lines and upset them!
Contact your local media to ask them to cover this issue. Maintain a consummate professional demeanor during all media contacts. Refer media to
www.secure-skies.org, and remember – everything is on the record!
Post a copy of the bill’s highlights, attached, (or, see “Highlights ~†at
http://www.secure-skies.org/Techical.asp) on your online airline message boards and in your crew lounges and workplaces, and wherever your coworkers will see them on the line! Post this Action Alert and carry copies with you, too!
DO NOT contact any Congress that does not directly represent you in your state or district, except to thank the bill’s cosponsors by email or fax. For example, Congressman Mica’s support is important to the passage of this bill (he’s Chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee); however, flooding Congressman Mica with thousands of phone calls, letters and faxes from outside his district would be the surest way to make him resistant to our cause. We will rely on Congressman Mica’s constituents to contact him.
Talking Points:
ü S.2268/HR.4126 enforces the original intent of the Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act of 2003 and standardizes armed pilot procedures according to accepted law enforcement practices. It will dramatically improve airline security, while placing no additional burden on airline passengers, and saving hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary expenses.
ü Tens of thousands of pilots currently refuse to volunteer to fly armed due to non-standard rules TSA added to the law, such as onerous and redundant psychological and background screening, locked box firearms carry, poor credentials, high disqualification rates and one remote training facility. TSA has disqualified hundreds of pilots, former federal agents, police officers and “nuclear-cleared†military pilots, among them.
ü Two years after the attacks, in an environment where security is routinely breached, only the smallest fraction of our flights is protected. At any single moment, there are about 5000 flights in the air. Only 75 statistically have an armed pilot aboard.
ü When the original law was passed, Congress deliberately removed a restriction that would have armed only 2% of our pilots; yet fewer than 2% have been armed by TSA.
ü The debate about arming pilots is over. A law passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Congress now mandates it. TSA is ignoring the law and the will of the United States Congress! This legislation requires TSA to act.
ü Your reelection depends on your support for this bill. I will not vote for any representative that fails to support S.2268/HR4126.
Congress has indicated it prefers faxes, then phone calls and emails for contact. Sending US mail results in long delays to inspect the mail for possible contaminants. Of course, a personal visit is the very best way to contact your representatives!
q Do not hesitate to contact Congress because you are not able to fax, however.
q Do not hesitate to contact Congress multiple times in multiple forms. You are free to make multiple phone calls on this issue. Make one contact a day, or one a week!
q Relate a different talking point with each phone call!
Contact Congress today here or through
http://www.secure-skies.org/.
APSA Needs Your Help!
Working with Congress to write and introduce our legislation was incredibly expensive (attorneys, planning meetings, legal research, media coverage, public relations, etc.). The fight to get it passed will be even more so!
APSA exists at the pleasure of its 40,000 members! If you want an FFDO program that works; if you want to protect the airline industry; if you want to be part of the solution, instead of letting TSA make you part of the problem; and, if you want to restore integrity to our industry and to your profession; we need your help in contacting your representatives, and we need your help financially. Join the APSA Captain’s Club - fly a Silent Wings Tribute Flight - provide us the resources we need to carry on the fight for you and your families! We’ve built the FFDO program, made it law, gotten cargo pilots in – we’ll win this battle too!
SPECIAL NOTE FOR CONGRESSMAN MICA’S CONSTITUENTS
If you reside in Congressman Mica’s Florida district (Daytona, St. Augustine, DeLand, FL areas), we are counting on you! We have asked members outside his district not to flood his office. You, as a constituent, however, may contact him at any time, using any method above. Please contact Congressman Mica and ask him to support this bill.
Point out that solving problems with the TSA “administratively†did not work when the first arming pilots law was passed – it took legislation forcing them to develop an FFDO program;
it did not work to get cargo pilots back into the program, it took legislation passed last December;
and it has not worked in almost a year that the FFDO program has been in place to get the roadblocks down. Quite the contrary, TSA threatened FFDO’s with even talking to Congress about the problems with the program.
Tell Congressman Mica it will take legislation once more – this legislation - to solve the problems and make our skies safer.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR ALPA MEMBERS
The Air Line Pilots Association is not actively supporting this bill at the present time. ALPA says, “allowing untested, unscreened, untrained pilots to carry firearms violates responsible security practices.â€
However, as ALPA knows, this bill does none of the above. TCA 2004 provides exactly what ALPA advocates in its poster, “Qualified to Fly - Qualified to Defend.†It allows highly-trained, highly-screened professional pilots to volunteer to see if they can pass federal law enforcement training. Period. And, if TSA doesn’t offer them training, it allows them to obtain professional, TSA-approved training themselves, to protect our skies.
If you are an ALPA member, we are counting on you! Spread the word and tell your leadership to start trusting its members, and restore integrity to the profession and the dignity of the image of the airline pilot, by supporting pilots being part of the solution. Tell them to get out in front and strongly support this legislation!
Contact:
David Mackett
President, Airline Pilots Security Alliance
https://www.secure-skies.org/apsamembershipupdate.asp (for pilot, non pilot, non FFDO pilot or FFDO Volunteer)
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