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A loaded handgun is a fine thing to take on a plane. I imagine the hilarious part was more on the "chainsaw" end of the scale.

by glenra 13y ago

DanBC 13y ago
Loaded hand guns are not allowed in hand luggage, only checked. Cultural note: sentences like "A loaded handgun is a fine thing to take on a plane" are the reason many people in many countries think that Americans are batshit insane.
- glenra 13y ago
  I realize guns aren't allowed in hand luggage, but they should be - there's nothing actually wrong with them. It's no more inherently dangerous than having them in the luggage one takes on a bus or a train or a ship or a private car. I can't speak to "people in many countries", but if you think having a gun on a plane is "batshit insane", my guess is that you've been fooled by Hollywood into believing a few false things. (Perhaps you saw Goldfinger but never saw the Mythbusters episode debunking it?) A gun fired on a plane can't cause "explosive decompression". No, not even if fired through a window. The pressure difference isn't large enough to be "explosive" and the air pressure is continuously maintained - planes are constantly leaking quite a lot of air by design so leaking a little more wouldn't hurt anything. The 9/11 gambit could work ONCE but can't work today - the front doors are locked and the passengers and crew know to resist. Committing any sort of deliberate crime on a plane is infinitely stupider in terms of likelihood of getting caught and ability to get away than committing one on the ground. The TSA "protects" us from "movie plot threats", not actual threats. We would be on-net safer if airport security were entirely eliminated - far fewer people would die than do today as a result of it. (TSA kills people today by making travel by air more expensive in money and time. This causes people to drive on long trips instead of fly, leading to extra deaths in auto accidents.)

A loaded handgun is a fine thing to take on a plane. I imagine the hilarious part was more on the "chainsaw" end of the scale.

by glenra 13y ago

A loaded handgun is a fine thing to take on a plane. I imagine the hilarious part was more on the "chainsaw" end of the scale.

DanBC 13y ago

Loaded hand guns are not allowed in hand luggage, only checked. Cultural note: sentences like "A loaded handgun is a fine thing to take on a plane" are the reason many people in many countries think that Americans are batshit insane.

glenra 13y ago
I realize guns aren't allowed in hand luggage, but they should be - there's nothing actually wrong with them. It's no more inherently dangerous than having them in the luggage one takes on a bus or a train or a ship or a private car. I can't speak to "people in many countries", but if you think having a gun on a plane is "batshit insane", my guess is that you've been fooled by Hollywood into believing a few false things. (Perhaps you saw Goldfinger but never saw the Mythbusters episode debunking it?) A gun fired on a plane can't cause "explosive decompression". No, not even if fired through a window. The pressure difference isn't large enough to be "explosive" and the air pressure is continuously maintained - planes are constantly leaking quite a lot of air by design so leaking a little more wouldn't hurt anything. The 9/11 gambit could work ONCE but can't work today - the front doors are locked and the passengers and crew know to resist. Committing any sort of deliberate crime on a plane is infinitely stupider in terms of likelihood of getting caught and ability to get away than committing one on the ground. The TSA "protects" us from "movie plot threats", not actual threats. We would be on-net safer if airport security were entirely eliminated - far fewer people would die than do today as a result of it. (TSA kills people today by making travel by air more expensive in money and time. This causes people to drive on long trips instead of fly, leading to extra deaths in auto accidents.)