What is there to Debate?
Okay, so a guy on an airplane says "I have a bomb in my bag", then when told to get on the floor, refuses, then reaches into the bag. When he refuses again, he's given some extra orifices, of the 9 millimeter variety.
Sounds to me like the Air Marshall plan worked as designed. To some though, mostly of the 'touchy feely' kind, this is disturbing. What is disturbing is that there are people, my guess they are not in law enforcement, who believe more time should have been taken.
Rep. John Mica of Florida made the right call on this "Air marshals don't have time for counseling or interviewing passengers. They have to make split-second decisions based on the current threat".
When a perp is reaching into the bag he/she says the bomb is in, you don't give them time, you give them lead. Some are claiming that maybe he could have blown the bomb after he was shot, which may be true, everything is a risk. But when make split second decisions, the Air Marshall had to decide which is a bigger one, him living and probably blowing up the bomb, or him dying and possibly blowing it up. Probably is always more dangerous than possibly.
I went through a weapons and tactics course once, the "final exam" was a stress driven course, 100 yard sprint to 4 stations using 3 firing positions, with 14 rounds each station, 4-7 possible perpetrators, and less than a minute to complete it, and they jammed 2 guns in different ways. Every perp got double tapped when I went through. So did a cardboard cutout of a kid.
I wasn't worried about 100 passengers, myself, or anything else, and I still made a bad decision on a shot, I can't imagine how much more stress that Air Marshall was under yesterday, his decision was real life, not cardboard cut outs.
Sounds to me like the Air Marshall plan worked as designed. To some though, mostly of the 'touchy feely' kind, this is disturbing. What is disturbing is that there are people, my guess they are not in law enforcement, who believe more time should have been taken.
Rep. John Mica of Florida made the right call on this "Air marshals don't have time for counseling or interviewing passengers. They have to make split-second decisions based on the current threat".
When a perp is reaching into the bag he/she says the bomb is in, you don't give them time, you give them lead. Some are claiming that maybe he could have blown the bomb after he was shot, which may be true, everything is a risk. But when make split second decisions, the Air Marshall had to decide which is a bigger one, him living and probably blowing up the bomb, or him dying and possibly blowing it up. Probably is always more dangerous than possibly.
I went through a weapons and tactics course once, the "final exam" was a stress driven course, 100 yard sprint to 4 stations using 3 firing positions, with 14 rounds each station, 4-7 possible perpetrators, and less than a minute to complete it, and they jammed 2 guns in different ways. Every perp got double tapped when I went through. So did a cardboard cutout of a kid.
I wasn't worried about 100 passengers, myself, or anything else, and I still made a bad decision on a shot, I can't imagine how much more stress that Air Marshall was under yesterday, his decision was real life, not cardboard cut outs.
posted by Crazy Politico at 3:56 AM
12Comments:
The air marshal did the right thing. I like what Representative Mica said about it sending a message.
12 08 05
Hello: I found you via Ms. Chatterbox and Rebecca. Great site you have here. Excellent post. I like the way you shared your personal experience and placed it into perspective. While I wish that the Air Marshal would ahve shot the person's hands or something, we all know he did the right thing. We CAN NOT EVER let another nineleven happen and it WON'T. Funny how those SF moonbats wanna deny us the right to bear arms, but in this case, the Air Marshal used one to (possibly) save many! I know they didn't find a bomb, but what if there was one in the bag? He should be given a medal of honor and not lambasted by moonbats in any way. Good post:)
I think that he did the right thing. I would have done the same thing.
I knew as soon as I heard about this that there would be monday morning quarterbacks criticizing this action. I totally support this Air Marshall and what he did. You can't take chances or second guess things when thousands of people's lives are at stake. Terrorism has made playing it safe impossible.
Greta, if the ACLU sues, I'm blaming you :)
Welcome to the new folks, glad you found the place, and hope you come back. I'll be by to visit you blogs, too.
MSR- A hand or other non-vital shot would be nice, but law enforcement folks are actually trained to aim at the center of mass, and fire until the situation is resolved.
LMCB- History is a pretty good teacher of what underreacting the threats causes. If the Air Marshall had waited, tried to talk the guy out of it, and then got blown up with a plane load of bystanders the monday morning QB's would be asking why he didn't shoot sooner.
Makes me feel more secure about flying again someday! (Haven't since 1996--can you believe that?)
Makes me more secure too, Paula. I haven't flown since last month, but I'll less qualms about it next month. I can beleive you haven't flown in 10 years. I actually hate airports, and the hassle, but it's better than driving 900 miles to see the family.
I hate to say it, but under the circumstances they had no choice but to do what they did. I am sorry it happened but sometimes you have to act. The results would have been far worse if they had made the opposite mistake with a man who had a bomb.
Well, now it seems he didn't say he had a bomb, which changes everything and makes me feel *less* secure!
I just read the Orlando Sentinel story on it, and the Miami police say a number of the witnesses heard him saying something about a bomb, and his wife say he feared there was one on board.
Other witnesses said he was just running for the exit.
Weird, and I don't every want to be in those air marshalls shoes.
BTW, after last nights accident i Chicago when do you plan to fly again?
Hah! Well, I was planning a trip next June to Pennsylvania...
You're fine, there shouldn't be snow on the runway in June.
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