A pilot’s gun discharged aboard a passenger plane last weekend. As the Washington Post reports:

A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane discharged as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said Monday.

The “accidental discharge” Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard, said Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service.

“We know that there was never any danger to the aircraft or to the occupants on board,” Alter said.

Under a program created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, pilots and others are allowed to carry a firearm so that they can defend against any act of air piracy or criminal violence, he said.

Even though gun control is not quite as hot an issue as it was during the heyday of school shootings and the Million Mom March, I’m kind of shocked this story didn’t make the front-page. Which isn’t to say the coverage has all been fair. We can thank ABC for the incendiary headline, “Trigger-Happy Pilot?” What great journalism! Imply the pilot was a trigger-happy lunatic firing shots at random into the air, then inform the reader he was in fact just doing his job.

Here’s a better question: how long before the Democrats propose eliminating the program? After all, the risk of harmless, accidental discharges--one in six-and-a-half years--can’t possibly outweigh the possible benefits of averting a single terrorist attack.