Why not carry on airplanes???

[Mach1]

Good idea...but won't work even in Texas. Our Texas legislature won't stand up to the feds about illegal seaches conducted by the TSA...Sure hated to see them cower before the US attorney general.

Oh well...

[Dave2]

A few small (35-45 cal) holes would not cause rapid decompression. Might squeal a bit as some air is lost. Bleed air will keep up. The biggest concern would be damaging equipment and wiring.

That's what I always thought, too. And then the Mythbusters were nice enough to confirm it (Part 1, Part 2). Though, as many people have pointed out in the comments, this test does not account for what the wind would do.

I'd be waaAAaaYyYyY more worried about getting hit in the crossfire. Most of the people on board probably wouldn't know the rules of gun safety, so they'd all be muzzling each other with their fingers on the triggers and so on and so forth. There'd probably be an AD/ND three times a day. All in all, it's a bad idea. I'm all for letting CHL holders carry on board, though. I would be really worried about hitting control and fuel lines, but then I see pictures of planes that landed with all sorts of holes in them, so I'm only kinda worried. It really is amazing how damaged some of these are.















Then there's the military's F-15 (Israel's military, in this case):



And of course the perennially underrated A-10 -- an aircraft that can take be hit with anti-aircraft fire over 378 times and still bring its pilot home...

[youtube][/youtube]

... and can be flown without any hydraulics at all:

[Dragonfighter]

.... and two it seems none of these folks have any trigger finger discipline.

Regarding, "KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER TIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET". Seems to me their sights are on the target, so I think their trigger finger discipline looks pretty good.

Now I agree that pesky ". . . AND BEYOND" part of knowing your target is a bit of an issue!

Frangible bullets.

Added in edit: I seem to remember a blurb after 9-11 about police officers on one or more of the planes that was quickly squelched. If we allowed COPS to carry even, the tragedy would have been mitigated at least.