George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC    20500


George Bush:

Your withdrawing your objections to airline pilots carrying firearms strikes me as another example of the United States government reacting to September 11 by making things worse.

What is wrong with airline pilots carrying firearms is that the pilots would need to be trained in their use, and that such training elevates lead levels in the body, chiefly through inhalation of lead dust.  Elevated lead levels can be expected to cloud perception, slow reaction time, impair judgment, heighten emotional lability, weaken concentration, and restrict long-term and short-term memory.  Some evidence that such are among the results of firearms handling can be found in my 18-Jul-2002 letter to Canadian media lord Israel Asper, titled "Does brain damage help explain Israeli barbarism?", of which I have enclosed a copy.  The bottom line promises to be that arming pilots will compromise passenger safety by the large effect of increased pilot error not being compensated by the small effect of reduced terrorism.

It would not be enough to restrict airline pilot exposure to only unleaded ammunition, as this would shine the spotlight on police and military personnel not being afforded the same protection against brain damage as airline pilots were.  The justification that more lives depend on airline pilots having clear minds than on police and military personnel having clear minds would do little to assuage the aroused sentiment that it was wrong to recompense police or military service by inflicting brain damage.

There really is no comprehensive solution to this quandary other than the removal of lead from all government-supplied ammunition.  Turning airline pilots into lead-dust inhalers is most decidedly a step in the wrong direction.




Lubomyr Prytulak