Dear gun owner,
I may not own a gun, but I believe our second amendment right to bear arms is very important. Some would say that since I do not care to own a gun, the efforts to limit your rights is not important to me. You would be the first to say that it is important to everyone and that when one citizen’s rights are being attacked, all will suffer - and I would agree.
I am the owner and pilot of one of those "small airplanes", known as general aviation or GA. In the way of background, I was born an American citizen fifty years ago and for the last twenty five years I have invested several thousand dollars per year in the national economy in connection with flying in the form of insurance, fuel, repairs, inspections, hangar rental, instruction, and taxes. I now have over thirty thousand dollars tied up in a thirty-five year old aircraft. I have never committed a crime with my airplane, or without it for that matter.
In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001, most of GA was grounded for a full week. I was happy to put my freedoms on hold for a short time to assist our government in rounding up the terrorists who were so freely walking about right here in our land - many of them pilots trained our own flight schools. After two years, most of our freedoms have been returned, except over major cities. The impact on me has been very slight compared to the flight instructors and crop dusters whose livelihood was affected or the millions of military men and women who have put their lives on the line to preserve our liberty. Yet, I am aware that a serious fight is still in progress for the freedoms of general aviation.
The disturbing thing to me is the people I hear talk about those "little airplanes" as potential instruments of terror, and how they should be banned. A typical GA aircraft flying into a World Trade Center would be similar to a bug hitting a windshield. There is talk of a "small airplane" full of explosives flying into a stadium. My airplane can carry only 1/10 as much payload as a Ryder truck, weighs only 1/100 as much as a Boeing 747 and holds only 1/1000 as much fuel as a Boeing 747. Any yahoo with a pickup truck or yuppie in an SUV could smash a load of explosives, many times larger than we could possibly lift into the air, into any building or stadium.
Like those of you who are careful to keep your guns out of the hands of those who may do harm, I have my airplane stored in a locked hangar, surrounded by a chain link fence with card controlled entry. No one gets to my aircraft unless they are known by me.
Like the banning of guns, the death of GA would have far reaching effects on our society. Grounding spray planes would soon turn our food supply over to pests of the field, with dramatic increases in prices at the grocery store. The end of GA would put flight instructors, airplane fuelers, mechanics and host of other people into the unemployment lines, taxing our already strained economy. The one week of grounding is estimated to have cost the GA industry a billion dollars so far. Those in remote locations would no longer have access to volunteer "Angel Flights" to take them to medical treatment that they may otherwise not be able to obtain. Those who enjoy the freedom and sport of flying would have an important segment of their life, much like the sport and recreation of shooting that you enjoy, ripped away.
The next time you encounter a discussion about how the freedoms of those "little airplanes" should be taken away, I ask you to speak up. I will do the same for you, as will many other pilots, particularly those brave airline pilots that must daily face the possibility of encountering hijacker’s knives with nothing more than their bare hands for protection.
Take away the freedoms of criminals, not peaceful American citizens.
Read about the freedom of flight in Gene's book, Confessions of a Pilot. |
Gene Seibel
