I say good riddance. This program was entirely precipitated by a bunch of gun nuts that thought they would get the right to "concealed carry" when there was absolutely NO reason for them to have a weapon.
And feared by hand wringing liberals who believe that the government will protect them (it won't, in fact the courts have held that the police in fact do not have a responsibility to protect individual citizens (Warren v. District of Columbia). Personally, I consider protecting myself and my family plenty of reason to have concealed carry (that and that pesky Second Amendment, which liberals go to great lengths to trash and reinterpret). As far as on the flight deck - the same still applies. Most of the problems I am aware of with the program arise from the lame brained procedures developed for handling the weapon - in, out, in, out, in, out. I am not aware of any other security or law enforcement protocol which involves as much handing of the weapon as FFDO, which is definitely contrary to safe practices - but that blame lies at the feet of those running the program.
The FFDO program will never have any value until you build a flight deck door with a gun port in it.
Not true, as the door is opened in flight a number of times for a number of reasons. Also, deadheading FFDO's should be carrying, acting in fact as Sky Marshalls (or do you believe they have no value either?).
If you just hate guns, then be honest and say, "I am in favor of only allowing criminals to have guns. I prefer honest, law abiding citizens to be disarmed and vulerable." Don't hide behind nonsense and rhetoric.
Otherwise, the door has to be opened for the FFDO to have any effect on the situation.
At this point it becomes obvious you have no idea what you are talking about or slept through secutity training. In either event, I'm not going to provide you with anymore information if you're on a fishing expedition.
$2M for this program? Total waste of taxpayer money.
Actually, compared to virtually any other law enforcement program out there, this one is a huge bargain in terms of the amount of manpower/$ spent.
If you want to cite meaningless statistics, to date it is an overwhelming success: 100%
There has not be a single US airliner hijacked since the inception of the FFDO program. Find another program with a similar success rate (and yes, I am resorting to hyperbole at this point - I certainly realize there are many other factors involved, but the fact remains that record stands).
Additionally, by all accounts the training the FFDO's recieve is outstanding and extends well beyond simply marksmanship. It's a good program that deserves to be made better, not ridiculed by minions of Chuckie "the American people don't care about porky amendments" Schumer .