By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

I've been against it and I've been for it. Then I changed my mind and was against it again. Finally, I think I have come to an inescapable conclusion. I am for it.

I will be criticized for voicing my opinion on this subject and some will even declare that I am a heretic to the faith for making the declaration. Let them rant.

I have decided. Arm the pilots; put firearms into the cockpit of passenger airline flights.

There. I've said it. The fact is that a firearm is the best deterrent possible against a suicidal manic bent on killing himself, a plane full of innocent people, and whoever he might crash the airplane into. Pepper spray, stun guns, mace all have a high failure potential. Terrorists who would repeat Sept. 11 must be stopped.

Several years ago, I was visiting a patient in one of Atlanta's inner-city hospitals. Late at night, sometime past midnight, I was driving on a darkened street when I stopped behind a car that was sitting at a red light. From out of the bushes to the right came a disheveled man who quickly attempted to get into the passenger side of the car in front of me.

Fortunately, the door was locked and, as the man pulled and jerked futilely at the handle, the terrified driver ran the red light and sped away. The man then ran back to my car and pulled on the passenger-side handle.

It was summertime in Atlanta and the night, as all who reside in this region can testify, was extremely warm. They don't call this city "Hotlanta" for nothing. My windows were down and, when the man reached my vehicle (this all happened in a matter of seconds) he reached inside the car to open the door. What he saw, as he looked in my direction, was a 9mm Smith and Wesson semiautomatic pistol, with the safety off, pointed at his grimy head.

I quietly said, "Don't."

With that, the man fell backward onto the pavement and scrambled back into the bushes to find repose under whatever rock he crawled out from under.

Yes, I own a firearm, possess a carry permit, and have undergone training with weaponry both in the Marine Corps and in the police academy and beyond. I am a good shot. In fact, I am a very good shot. I do not own a weapon for sport, for show, or for target practice. I own a weapon because I have learned that the world is a very dangerous place and, if any one ever breaks into my house and threatens the life of my family, I intend to go downstairs with something more than a golf club.

I am a reformed pacifist. At one time in my life, I believed that to be a Christian was to be non-violent in all situations. I mistakenly believed that when Jesus said to "turn the other cheek," it was the duty of all believers to allow themselves to be pummeled mercilessly into the dirt. I held that view pretty much until I married and had children. Then I read in scripture that a "man who refuses to provide for his family is worse than an infidel." That provision, I believe, includes personal safety against predators and marauders.

Many, if not most, airline pilots are veterans of the military and have been trained in combat arms. In the past, they have been entrusted by their government to handle weapons. Today, most police officers in Georgia who carry firearms have had a scant forty hours or so of weapons training.

Many police recruits go into the academy without ever having fired a gun. At some point, they will be taken to the range, will receive instruction, will "dry fire" fir a while, and then will end the week firing on stationary targets for qualification. After one week, the officers, once sworn by an agency, will be trusted to carry a loaded gun every day of their career. They do an admirable job and handle themselves and their weapons with great responsibility.

It is commonly known that most flights are not accompanied by an armed sky marshal. One pilot, with 32 years of experience (who is a combat veteran, by the way), said to me that, since Sept. 11, he has had a sky marshal on only one flight.

Every time I get on an airplane, I trust my life to the pilots in the cockpit. I trust them to handle a multimillion dollar machine with hundreds of lives on board. Is there a reason I shouldn't trust them with a firearm? Since the airlines won't let me take my weapon on board and since one cannot count on a sky marshal being present, what deterrent is there for a crazed fanatic who desires to go out in a blaze of glory and take hundreds of innocents with him?

So, I have finally come to my conclusion. Arm the pilots. Train them, hold them accountable, re-qualify them regularly but arm them. Let the terrorist know that, if he breaks into the cockpit, he will die and that he will fail in his demented mission to cause others to die.

I'm truly sorry that it has come to this. But this is the new reality of a post 9/11 world.

[David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church serving the South Metro Atlanta area. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.ctkcec.org.]

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