Robert Tracinski has the best take yet on Mr. Magaw’s not-to-be-lamented departure. It at least offers a chance that we’ll come up with some airline security policy that isn’t totally brain dead.

What really motivates the ban on armed pilots is Magaw’s allegiance to gun control. As head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Magaw had a record of expanding government regulations to put gun dealers out of business and make criminals out of law-abiding gun owners. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, Magaw’s boss and the man who is still in charge, has a similar record from his days in Congress.

Magaw and Mineta would rather have F-16s blow passenger jets out of the skies than recognize that even a single civilian has the right to use a gun in self-defense.