Joe Barton

Dec 1, 2001 | 0 comments

Congressman Joe Barton of Texas is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights De-fender of the Month Award for December.
John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said Bar-ton, “truly distinguished himself recently by proposing the Federal Pilot Officer Act of 2001.”
“Ever since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the United States, there has been a lot of discussion re-garding the arming of commer-cial airline pilots for the safety of airline passengers,” Snyder noted. “This discussion generally has shown that guns in the hands of the right people at the right time may well be instruments of protection, of life preservation.”
Congress enacted legislation that allows pilots to arm them-selves if their airlines agree, and if
they complete a firearm course approved by the Department of Transportation.
“In the midst of this debate,” Snyder said, “Congressman Bar-ton introduced H.R. 3171. He ob-viously deserving of this distinc-tion.”
When Barton unveiled his pro-posal, he noted that, “All flight officers who volunteer for this program would receive training in law enforcement procedures and firearm handling, allowing them greater ability to defend their passengers and aircraft. I believe this measure would give flight crews and passengers addi-tional reassurance of their safe passage.”
The Barton bill stated specifi-cally that “armed pilots, copilots and flight engineers with proper training will be the last line of
defense against terrorists by pro-viding cockpit security and air-craft security.”
Barton represents the Sixth Dis-trict of Texas. He is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on En-ergy and Air Quality of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He serves also on the House Science Committee and is a member of the House Republi-can Steering Committee, a coun-cil that sets strategy for House Republicans.
In the last two Congresses, Bar-ton worked to protect individual rights. As a founding member and co-chairman of the Congres-sional Privacy Caucus, he has worked to preserve Americans’ financial and medical privacy. Barton has promoted legislation and technology directed at pro-tecting privacy on the Internet.