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Comment by ck2 | Hacker News Reader

Just wait for a hijacking with a gun, the NRA will start insisting people open carry on planes to protect themselves.

"the NRA will start insisting people open carry"

Cute gag - the NRA would not "insist", and would not suggest "open carry" for tactical reasons either. To top it off, guns were allowed to be carried on board US airplanes till the 60s.

Math puzzle:

What are the odds that more than half of the passengers want to die in a terrorist strike?

So if we equipped all passengers with tasers, all terrorists would be caught. Of course, sometimes there might be some minor accidents, but they're not (very) lethal or harmful to the aircraft structure.

One change would result. You would have to pay the cabin attendants a lot more :) Also the safety instructions would take a while longer. They would show how to operate the taser in case your neighbor starts doing something suspicious.

Minor incidents? People would be letting their kids play with them and shoot other kids/people with them, police would have to meet every plane landing to arrest people for tasering the people behind them kicking their seat.

BTW if you let all passengers have them, you'd be arming terrorists, sooner or later - all they have to do is use it on a pilot going to the bathroom, if they are ready to die they don't need anyone to land the plane.

You would have to have a taser license perhaps, and you'd get a discount when flying. Especially if there's a shortage of security people on a particular flight. Airports could have 20 minute courses while you're waiting for your delayed flight anyway. This is normal par for the course, one would just sell it as normal crowd sourcing / uberizing of cabin security. ;)

Have you seen a pilot go to the bathroom? On us flights the flight attendants set up a barricade using a drink cart before the pilot comes out so you can't even get close to the bathroom without a major commotion.

The parent comment's point is that the terrorists would be outnumbered. Incidentally, one of the planes involved in the 9/11 attack--the one meant to hit the White House, IIRC--was grounded by unarmed passengers who overwhelmed the terrorists who hijacked the plane.

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