The Federal Air Marshal Service was profiled on CNN today outlining some of the concerns that the agency has faced recently.
Rep. Duncan, R-Tennessee, is one of FAMS' harshest critics.
"It's just a total waste of money, I know that any time you create a federal bureaucracy, it just grows and grows, and the appropriation just goes up and up, but ... look at the record. They haven't done anything. I had the statistic from last year, they made four arrests for an appropriation of $800 million. It came out to more than $200 million per arrest. It's just ridiculous."
They haven't done anything? A total waste of money?? While your at it why don't we also do away with the Secret Service (with a yearly $1.4b budget) because nobody has attempted to assassinate the President since Hinckley shot Reagan almost 30 years ago.
What Rep. Duncan doesn't understand is that FAMS' is a layer in the overall security structure. Just as there are not armed pilots on every flight, the Air Marshals cannot have a physical presence on every domestic or international flight either; but the possibility that they are is a very strong deterrent. The bad guys are literally playing Russian Roulette. And as we've seen on numerous flights, starting with UAL 93, passengers will not hesitate to involve themselves to intervene in dangerous and/or life threatening situations.
Or we could go with the Archie Bunker method (which perhaps dimwit Rep. Duncan would approve of), "Well, I could stop hi-jacking tomorrow . . . if everyone was allowed to carry guns them hi-jackers wouldn't have no superiority. All you gotta do is arm all the passengers, then no hi-jacker would risk pullin' a rod."
2/7 followup thought -
How many folks do the Secret Service protect verses how many folks do the FAMS' protect? If you compare the budget on a per capita basis the value is lopsided toward the FAMS'.
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