It’s easy to imagine what the outcome of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would have been had the pilots or flight crew aboard American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77 and United Airlines Flight 93 been armed. The planes still might have gone down, as was the case when passengers aboard Flight 93 fought back, but the body count surely would have been lower than 2,974.

Since those attacks, pilots have been able to go through a federal training program to become armed, federal officers aboard their aircraft. Some 12,000 pilots have become Federal Flight Deck Officers.

According to the Washington Times, that’s about to end so President Obama can pander to the anti-gun lobby, which should have nothing to do with this. Security should trump politics.

Not only is President Obama exploring ways to release terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, so they can rejoin their comrades, he also plans to strip American passengers of their last line of defense from those terrorists.

As the Times writes in an editorial today:

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots. …

Since Mr. Obama’s election, pilots have told us that the approval process for letting pilots carry guns on planes slowed significantly. Last week the problem went from bad to worse. Federal Flight Deck Officers – the pilots who have been approved to carry guns – indicate that the approval process has stalled out.

Pilots cannot openly speak about the changing policies for fear of retaliation from the Transportation Security Administration. Pilots who act in any way that causes a “loss of confidence” in the armed pilot program risk criminal prosecution as well as their removal from the program. Despite these threats, pilots in the Federal Flight Deck Officers program have raised real concerns in multiple interviews. …

Armed pilots are a cost-effective backup layer of security. Terrorists can only enter the cockpit through one narrow entrance, and armed pilots have some time to prepare themselves as hijackers penetrate the strengthened cockpit doors. With pilots, we have people who are willing to take on the burden of protecting the planes for free. About 70 percent of the pilots at major American carriers have military backgrounds.

Frankly, as a matter of pure politics, we cannot understand what the administration is thinking. Nearly 40 House Democrats are in districts were the NRA is more popular than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We can’t find any independent poll in which the public is demanding that pilots disarm. Why does this move make sense?

Only anti-gun extremists and terrorist recruits are worried about armed pilots. So why is the Obama administration catering to this tiny lobby at the expense of public safety?

Change we can believe in … or die for.

Read the whole thing here.