Washington ? When the Bush administration denounced the idea of guns for pilots, it said trained air marshals would be able to handle terrorists on planes.

Trouble is, there are not enough marshals to cover every commercial flight, and some lawmakers say there aren’t even enough armed officers to protect passengers on the long-range trips considered most likely to be targeted by terrorists.

The exact number of marshals remains classified, but proponents of arming pilots say there should be guns in the cockpit, no matter what.

Transportation Security Administration chief John Magaw said the marshals, who before Sept. 11 flew only on international flights, were now on domestic routes as well.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said he believed there were about 1,000 air marshals. That would be considerably more than the pre-Sept. 11 level, believed to be less than 50. But there are 33,000 to 35,000 commercial flights a day to protect, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Your chances of having an air marshal on your flight are not as good as winning some of the lotteries,” said Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, an advocacy group.

The administration’s hard line against guns in the cockpits probably dampened prospects for legislation to allow them. Transportation Department officials still are deciding whether to equip pilots and flight attendants with nonlethal weapons such as stun guns.

Air marshals, the Transportation Department’s soldiers in the war on terrorism, never fly alone and don’t identify themselves to anyone but the pilot. They undergo the same kind of firearms training as the Army’s Special Forces.

The aviation security bill enacted last fall required marshals to be stationed on the most high-risk flights, including nonstop, cross-country routes like those flown by the four planes hijacked Sept. 11.

Despite the effort to recruit and train marshals, however, the number now flying “doesn’t currently meet my idea of what is necessary,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the lawmaker who put that provision into the law.