When I was typing that, there was another sentence that I thought to myself, but appearantly forgot to actually type out. And that was that the pilot be armed and/or behind a locked door.

Funny yes but innacurate as when a gun is shot in a plane the pressure rises rapidly and can force the weaker parts of the plane to break like windows or rivets. So to shoot a suicidal terrorist may stop them from hitting their target but you would probably end up crashing anyway.

Watch more Mythbusters. It doesn't explosively decompress in most situations and planes can land even with minor damage to the hull. It's still a really bad idea, though.

A pistol will not cause rapid decompression and even if it did, rapid decompression would not threaten the aircraft. . . You might undergo a few moments of terror as the aircrew pointed the nose to the ground to lower altitude (raising ambient pressure and O2 to an unassisted level) but the airworthiness of the aircraft would not be compromised, just a few eardrums.

A little over a month ago a USAir Pilot had an accidental discharge of his pistol in the cockpit at altitude and the rest of the crew and passengers hadn't a clue what happened. The plane landed without incident at its scheduled airport.

LINK

Exactly.

Love it.

I saw it on Mythbusters. Shooting a hole in a plane does not cause a significant change in cabin pressure.

__________________
^My First Knockout Victory!^

No! You are totally uneducated on this subject.

__________________
“It is anomalous to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach.”

At the very least, pilots should be allowed all the ammo and weaponry they desire.

If they did that then the FAA would be required to change their laws. Doing so would allow, or open the window to allow others on the plane to carry.

The FAA is full of people that are not all that bright. But want to keep their jobs. No guns on planes is popular, so they will stick with it.

__________________
“It is anomalous to hold that in order to convict a man the police cannot extract by force what is in his mind, but can extract what is in his stomach.”

It may be popular but it is dumb law.

Pilots can go terrorist on a passenger plane if they wanted to. Why? They are in control of the plane. So adding guns to the mix, isn't really a problem. It just helps prevent a potential problem.

Just think about the United 93 Flight. Those guys and girls were already kicking some ass. Just imagine if they had some guns.