In-Flight Security Falls to Passengers

Since Sept. 11 it has been clear that real security on airlines is being supplied by the flying passengers. All of the supposed security by the bureaucrats before Sept. 11 was shown for the joke it is, and the only real anti-terrorist security that day was provided by some of the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93.

Since that day, we see that passengers are providing their own security, as evidenced by events when a man tried to get into an in-flight aircraft’s cockpit (“Airline Passengers Thwart Attempt to Enter Cockpit,” Oct. 9). The official response was to escort the airliner with fighter jets. Would they have shot it down, I wonder?

Since we don’t yet live in a totalitarian regime, there will never be enough police to prevent terrorism on American soil. It is clear that we citizens must provide that anti-terrorist security for ourselves. So I say to government at all levels: Lead, follow or just get out of the way. We must immediately remove all local, state and federal laws that interfere with the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms.

We allowed government to enact such laws and regulations with the promise that they could then protect us. It is abundantly clear that they cannot do so. The only response that will be effective for a free people is the armed citizen.

Jim Dodd

San Diego

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It is now time the airlines hire “bouncers,” not flight attendants, after the incident on the American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Chicago. They tell us we aren’t going to get food anymore, and the in-flight priorities have definitely changed.

Bonnie Dezzutto

Long Beach