Escalation!?

So I'm reading this article about putting armed guards on US shipping running through the areas where pirates have been operating lately, and I see this quote:

"Joe Cox, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America, cautioned that deploying armed guards aboard cargo ships could escalate violence if pirates expect a gunfight."

Dude... during the last attempted hijacking, the pirates fired automatic weapons and RPGs at the crew. After the crew barricaded themselves in the engine room, the pirates poured it on, literally trying to blow them out of their barricaded redoubt with more explosives...

... and this was an attack on an unarmed crew who did not fight back.

RPGs, automatic weapoons, and explosives... how much more, exactly, could the violence be escalated?

They should put this Joe Cox guy in charge of security on college campuses.