11/01 Pilots’ Resolution

A Resolution

by
Captain Robert J. Giuda
United Airlines
Council 52, Air Line Pilots Assn.


The following resolution states that pilots will refuse to fly unless they are able to carry firearms into the cockpits of their planes. It has been passed by several ALPA Councils, and is being considered across the nation by numerous Councils at both ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association) and APA (the Allied Pilots Association). It has passed at United’s Los Angeles Council, Alaska’s Seattle Council, at Delta’s Cincinnati Council, and at a Continental/Express Council in Houston.

If you have any further questions, or any election results relating to other councils, please contact United Airlines Capt. Bob Giuda at [redacted] via e-mail. Giuda, who is also a New Hampshire state representative, has been spearheading the efforts to get this resolution passed by local pilot unions.


Whereas our nation has suffered a devastating attack against its people, its commerce, and the very philosophy of its origins, delivered by an enemy with the expressed goal of destroying our way of life; and

Whereas this attack, declared by the President of the United States and the Congress convened to be “an act of war”, required the vicious murder of professional Air Line Pilots who gave their lives upholding our sacred pledge to protect, using every possible means, the safety and security of those who are entrusted to our care; and

Whereas the execution of this act of war made Flight Crews direct combatants, and commercial aircraft lethal weapons, in the conduct of this war; and

Whereas, the ultimate responsibility and authority for the safety and security of every aircraft are vested by law in the Captain of that aircraft, with the support of the other members of the Flight Crew; and

Whereas both the Air Line Pilot Code of Ethics, and Federal Aviation Regulations charge us, as professional Air Line Pilots, to use every means, including extraordinary measures when necessary, to effectuate the safe conduct of every flight; and

Whereas current federal regulations mandate public disarming of all Flight Crewmembers, damnably stripping us of our right to self-defense and shamefully denying our passengers a common-sense measure of operational security commensurate with the threat we face on a daily basis; and

Whereas the dangerous effect of these federal regulations is to deny us, as engaged combatants and easily identified targets, the ability to carry any item remotely perceived as a possible weapon aboard the very aircraft we are charged by law and committed by conscience to defend with our lives;

Be It Therefore Solemnly Resolved that the pilots of Council 52 of the Air Line Pilots Association demand that U.S. Flight Crewmembers, on a voluntary basis, and upon successful completion of an appropriate course of firearms instruction developed and administered by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, be permitted by law to carry concealed weapons in defense of the aircraft , crew, and passengers whose lives are entrusted to us by the very same laws that deny us the ability to meet our legal and moral charge;

Be It Further Resolved that those Air Line Pilots who so qualify shall be licensed by the government of the United States to carry concealed weapons throughout the United States and its sovereign territories under a suitable provision of the U.S. Code.

Be It Further Resolved that the Government of the United States shall indemnify any air carrier and its employees and assigns, and specifically any Flight Crewmember, who legitimately utilizes a weapon to defend against any attempted breach of cockpit security;

And Be It Also Solemnly Resolved that the members of Council 52, Air Line Pilots Association, absent implementation of all provisions of this Resolution, do in good conscience, knowingly and with firm conviction, advocate a national Suspension of Air Service, at such times and in such a manner as is deemed appropriate by the leadership of the Air Line Pilots Association, until the provisions contained herein are enacted into law.