Flying at the Speed of Government

This seems like good news:

New York, NY – Two years ago, the Federal Flight Deck Officer program began training the nation’s pilots who wanted to carry guns on flights to protect the cockpit. Aviation sources tell TIME that more than 4,000 pilots are now authorized to carry guns, and they are flying armed on more flights each day than the air marshals. These gun-toting pilots, who fly unidentified, now constitute the fourth largest federal law enforcement group in the U.S., TIME’s Sally Donnelly reports.

Of course, as the heroes of Flight 93 showed, the Flight Deck Officer program should have been in place 30 years ago.