Safety, Airplanes, Armed Pilots, Negligent Dischages and You.
Last week, an armed pilot on a commercial passenger aircraft accidentally discharged his firearm resulting in damage that grounded the plane for several days (Washington Times story). Thankfully nobody was hurt, unless you consider the pilot’s career.
The blame? Most peoples’ opinion is that the TSA policy for armed pilots is dangerously flawed. Specfically:
- Armed pilots must use a TSA approved holster (um… ok)
- Armed pilots must secure the gun whenever the cockpit door is opened (ok)
- The method of securing the gun involves placing a padlock through the holster and through trigger guard of the loaded firearm on a holster never designed for this operation (WHAT?).
A basic rule of firearm safety — don’t shove things in the trigger guard unless you are intending to discharge the gun! There is a youtube video that has been posted that shows just how dangerous this procedure is.
The question to you: This is not an isolated example of mandated unsafe practices. What do you do when you are being required to engage in what you consider an unsafe practice.
In ADE I have encountered this routinely when training military and law enforcement personal… SWAT teams that insist on stacking tightly together with rifle muzzles one bump from being pointed at a guy’s head. We see sheriff deputies that insist on flaying their support hand fingers away from their body during a pistol presentation because that is how they were trained. Inevitably, these actions end up with somebody hurt or dead. In training, we stop them — zero tolerance.
But… What do you do…. When your supervisor insists that you put that padlock through the trigger guard of your loaded pistol against your firm knowledge of proper firearm safety?
When all is said and done, if your firearm ends up killing or injuring somebody it is you that will have to live with the consequences and the emotions.