(Friday, March 14, 2003) -- Great news! A key Senate committee voted yesterday to close the airline loophole and allow cargo pilots to carry firearms in the cockpit.

The loophole was created last year when a conference committee hijacked legislation that would have armed all pilots -- instead, inserting language that would only protect passenger planes.

Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) is the lead sponsor of the legislation to arm cargo pilots. Ironically, he has been joined by anti-gun Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who offered this language as an amendment in committee yesterday.

Senator Bunning was ecstatic after the committee vote. "This legislation will close a loophole in the [law] that was opened when cargo pilots were excluded last year," he said.

"A cargo jet can just as easily be turned into a weapon of mass destruction as a passenger plane. By arming cargo pilots we would be providing one more layer of security to ensure that doesn't happen again."

Without a load of passengers to help defend the plane, a couple of stowaways could more easily commandeer a cargo jet than a passenger plane. For this reason, yesterday's committee vote was very important.

The amendment passed handily as a rider to the Air Cargo Security Act (S. 165).

Over in the House, pro-gun Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) has introduced similar language. His bill, H.R. 1049, would also allow cargo pilots to be armed.

Gun rights supporters should ask their Representatives to cosponsor this vital legislation. Please contact them today.

ACTION:

Please forward this alert to your friends and coworkers. Then visit the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send a pre-written e-mail message to your Representative. Urge him or her to cosponsor H.R. 1049, a bill that will arm cargo pilots and protect our skies (and tall buildings) from terrorist attacks.

------ Pre-written message ------

Dear Representative:

If you believe, as I do, that safeguarding our planes from terrorists is important, I hope you will cosponsor H.R. 1049 -- a bill to arm cargo pilots.

Had the pilots of the doomed aircraft on 9-11-01 had access to firearms, those attacks could have been thwarted and thousands of American lives saved. It is true that commercial pilots are now allowed to carry firearms in the cockpit. But the law contains a gaping loophole that future terrorists can fly through.

By not allowing cargo pilots to arm themselves -- similar to commercial pilots -- future terrorists can easily commandeer a cargo plane and inflict just as much damage as we saw almost two years ago.

Please close the airplane loophole now. Cosponsor H.R. 1049 so that terrorists will never be able to hijack a cargo plane and take the lives of innocent Americans.

Sincerely,

__________________

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