The reason there hasn't been another 9/11 style hijacking, is because the US Government has ARMED US Federal Air Marshals on a good majority of the high-risk flights!!!!!!! Air Marshals carrying Sig Sauer pistols!!!
Wing Commander, you speak as if Air Marshals are on most flights. I can't get into numbers, but I can assure you, that's not the case. I think I can speak with some authority on this, as I've been flying, as First Officer & Captain, for passenger & cargo airlines for over 20 years. It's statistically more likely to be alert passengers & F/As who are first on the scene if an incident breaks out in the cabin. Recent incidents have proved this. My own experience has seen this.
Yes, some of us pilots are FFDO certified, yet that's really only relevant to a flight-deck breach.
Yes, the Air Marshal system is a great deterrant, but they need more staff. (Maybe you can apply, Wing Commander). I'll say it again...the previous SOP, pre 9-11, was to comply, comply, comply. Those days are over. Just ask the shoe bomber, underwear bomber, and the many others who have started fights, gotten drunk, forgot their meds, or just overall went berserk and totally apesh!t on many, many domestic & international flights. Then ask the passengers who took action if they'd do it all again. You'd get a resounding, " hell yes!"
And by the way. Air Marshals have some of the highest weapon qualification, and discipline standards of any law enforcement branch. In speaking with many of them, the last thing they want to see are a bunch of poorly trained, un-disciplined Rambo wannabees walking into Chipotle Grill, Walmart, or Target, with ARs slung over their shoulders.
It's also funny how Ronald Reagan, the great bastion of American conservatism, so fawned over by those who claim to be conservative, was himself, IN FAVOR OF AN ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN, along with the Brady Bill. Wow! What a hippie, pinko, commie, liberal that Reagan would be if he were around today!! Smh 😏
