By Dave Marash

At Washington's Reagan National Airport this week, passengers were evenly divided on the question of weapons in the cockpit.

"I think it would be too dangerous to have pilots who carry weapons, considering the latest incident of pilots drinking on the job," said one traveler.

"They should have the right to have a gun, if you ask me. With today's security, I mean, it's pretty tight, but not tight enough," said another.

That sentiment is one thing almost all the passengers, pilots, flight attendants and experts ABCNEWS talked with agree on. Whatever their stance on the cockpit weapons issue: that the current airport security system isn't good enough.

Better Intelligence

Does bag-matching of passengers and their luggage really ensure safety? Do screeners inside the airport focus on the right targets for random security checks? According to says Carol Hallett of the Airline Transport Association, getting better answers to these and similar questions depends on one thing: better intelligence.

"This is a huge, huge mistake if we do not ramp up the intelligence across the board so that we know who is going onto our airplanes. And that is the only way our passengers will be protected," Hallett said.

The wisest investment in improved security, Hallett says, would be hiring more air marshals.

"It comes down to needing to have professional protection, and that is what the air marshals are trained to do," she said.

Since Sept. 11, the number of air marshals has been substantially increased, but they are not present on every flight.

The security program of veteran pilot Denny Breslin is straightforward: More air marshals, non-lethal weapons for flight attendants, and lethal weapons for pilots in the cockpit. And by lethal weapons, Breslin does not mean stun guns or tasers.

"A stun gun or a taser is incapable of defending against a lethal intent," he said. "And a taser is never effective against multiple attackers, so only a lethal weapon will avoid lethal intent."

The House recently passed legislation that would allow pilots to carry weapons but limited their use to inside the cockpit. "But what if, say, someone was threatening lives in the cabin? Would the line at the cockpit door be crossed?" Breslin asked.

Patricia Friend, president of the International Association of Flight Attendants, said the question had not been addressed.

"We have not taken into account the human factor," she said. "What would a cockpit member do in the face of hearing both his crewmembers and his passengers systematically killed off? Would he or she stay behind the barricaded cockpit door? I don't believe we know the answer to that."

Friend's solution would be to give the cabin crew non-lethal weapons and training in self- and passenger-defense.

"Without any defensive capabilities in the cabin," Friend said, "it doesn't matter where the weapon is in the cockpit, too many people are going to die before anyone gets to use that gun."

Lock and Load

Then, where would the pilot's weapon stay: locked in a box in the cockpit? No way, says pilot Carmen Villani.

"What happens if a weapon becomes unaccountable all of a sudden? Are we going to empty terminals? Are we going to tell airplanes to return to their gates, are we going to deplane passengers until we can say what happened to this weapon?" said Villani.

When it came to keeping a gun in her home, around her children, pilot Linda Pauwells said, she and her husband decided against it When it comes to weapons in her cockpit, she's for it. Is this an inconsistency?

"They are apples and oranges to me," she said. "To me, it is not a gun issue, it is a cockpit defense issue. And as a captain of a major airline and someone who has quite a bit of experience flying, I believe we need to defend the zone of the cockpit. It must be done."

Pauwells wants her gun, even if it means she'll have to keep it at home, around her kids. But she wants some help with this new responsibility.

"For us, yes, it would be a burden and it would be an inconvenience, but it would also be a duty. And that is also what we do," she said. "We fly airplanes safely and we protect our passengers. But we should not be the only ones. It really has to be a mindset, and this country will have to embrace this mindset, if we want to have a system of air traffic that is safe for all of us."