Today I saw a driver wearing a pistol....

You think that is shocking? I saw one eating a salad!

 

I thought the discussion was carrying in a truck, not retired LEO's. You can get a non resident permit in NYS if you own property also. The average driver is not going to maintain two properties in two states to be able to carry in them though.

 

I call bs. Pictures of it didn't happen.

 

It is an explanation active and retired LEO'S can and do drive trucks.

 

Nothing about movies. Air pressure that high up is very thin. The cab has to be pressurized or the passengers can actually die. If you shoot and miss and blow out a window, you can kill someone. The risk is incredibly high.

But not even that, the movie physics are realistic to an extent. If you blow that window out, the plane will depressurize insanely fast, within seconds. If there's any problem with the oxygen mask system, which is very possible thanks to cirtuits in the walls, your pilots can very quickly lose consciousness and now your plane is just a very fast wrecking ball aimed at wherever it feels like crashing. Now, physics says that a higher pressure wants to stabalize with the lower pressure. So the air in the plane will rush out. A blown window isn't going to suck people out, but it's going to suck a very large amount of air at one time against a light aluminum body. Bullet holes in the body are going to have the same effect, just slower. People aren't going to be sucked out, maybe some magazines and stuff like that, but not people. But the main thing that's going to be sucked out is oxygen. You're creating a cabin that's doing everything in it's power to become a vacuum.

While what happens in the movies isn't likely to happen unless you can cause a ridiculously big hole, it's equally as dangerous because of what will actually happen in real life.

 

A tiny little bullet hole isn't enough to do anything. The glass won't blow out just because it gets shot. The wall of the plane won't tear open, either. Planes aren't made out of paper! The mythbusters have looked at those scenarios several times over the years, pressurizing the cabin to the same pressures relative to the in-flight altitudes and breeching the cabin walls to varying degrees. Nothing short of using explosives to blow out a window or put a large hole in the side of the plane had any effect. A handgun is simply insufficient to cause enough damage to bring down a plane. Facts are facts, and you aren't entitled to make up your own just because you don't like guns. If you have actual proof...scientific tests which can back up your claim...then post a link.

Even with rapid decompression, loss of consciousness is not immediate. At a long distance cruising altitude of 40,000 feet, a pilot would have 15-20 seconds of useful consciousness to recognize what is going on and get his oxygen mask on. At 35,000 feet, they'd have 30-60 seconds. With the training these pilots have, I'm not concerned.

You don't like guns. We get that. But believe it or not, they aren't as bad or as destructive as the movies and liberal politicians have led you to believe.

 

I've parked and delivered at places where I wish I'd be armed with nice pistol, preferably semi-auto.

 

You realize every bomber made since the 29, WW2, has been pressurized right? Do you think none of those have had a few holes punched in them? It's not quite the disaster scenario you paint.

 

That's assuming they can. Flying over a mountain range doesn't exactly leave much room for a sudden drop in altitude.

And I've repeatedly over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and pointed out that I'm 1000000000% for guns... But 1000000001% in favor of only RESPONSIBLE owners having those guns, something way too many Americans aren't proving themselves to be. Responsible means you're not waving your gun around near crowds, you're not shooting in closed areas because someone grabbed a purse and started running, you're not shooting across a parking lot because someone stole tools from Home Depot, you're not shooting at people trying to steal a car while a difference of a fraction of a degree off from where you're standing can mean you shoot the actual owner of the car in the head.

Now, those WW2 bombers... They fly very significantly lower than the average commercial plane. The problem isn't that the side of the plane is going to fly off. The problem is exactly what happens when you stick a nail in a car tire, air rushes out. That lowers the pressure in the cabin, meaning there's less air filling it, meaning there's less oxygen, meaning serious health risks. Plexiglass side windows aren't invincible. A bullet can easily punch a hole in one, that weakens the area around it, a window CAN be shot out. A hole the size of a commercial plane's window can easily bring the pressure dangerously low in only seconds. We're not talking about getting sucked out of the plane like you see in movies, we're talking about a sudden drop in air pressure normalizing itself to a level that humans typically can't survive at. In very very basic terms, all the air you need to breathe, goes outside the plane leaving you not enough air to breathe... And this is the reason most fighter pilots wear a mask, because of the combination of sudden altitude changes, and when there's a hole, it can affect being able to breathe. Again, no movie getting sucked out of the plane, we're talking about a drop in air pressure when humans can only survive within a certain range, and 30-40,000 feet isn't exactly within that survivable range, you need to drop to about 8,000 to guarantee safety.

 

I totally disagree that bombers fly lower than commercial airliners but whatever. I think we can both agree they fly higher than 8,000 ft so what's your point?