Reticent that I am to side with Allan's frothy rhetoric, it is clear that simply the possibility that some on an airplane could be packing heat would deter any attempts at hi-jacking.

Except that it didn't. The years when they didn't prevent people from taking guns on planes were the golden age of hijackings.

Robert A Heinlein said an armed society is a polite society.

In reality, the most heavily armed societies are the least polite societies. Who's more polite, the citizens of Hamburg or the citizens of Atlanta? How polite is it anyway to blow someone away?

Look, I understand how people, especially fearful people, can fall in love with guns. But please don't expect everyone else to accept the utter nonsense that you use to rationalize your fetish.