Let's take hijacking and potential crimes out of this for a second, and I know you say you don't want to dwell on [a] worst case scenario, but pilots are human beings. They get depressed, they get suicidal, they get angry. If they're armed, isn't that a formula for disaster?
[Ed.: One man threw a fit after he was denied permission to board a Northwest flight to Minneapolis from the Rapid City Regional Airport until he relinquished his nail scissors and clippers. The man was, in fact, the pilot of the airplane, and there were no exceptions to the strict new security rules.]
