Congress: Passengers Can Bring Guns on Amtrak Trains

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

On Tuesday night Congressional negotiators reached an agreement that the final version of a transportation bill would include an amendment that restores the right of Amtrak travelers to pack their firearms in checked baggage.

National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said his organization was pleased. "I think it's a major step forward," Arulanandam told ABC News.

Members of the House Homeland Security Committee had previously expressed concern that allowing guns on Amtrak would heighten the risk of terror attacks like those on trains and train stations in Europe and India.

After 9/11, Amtrak had barred passengers from bringing guns on trains. This Sept., Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., attached an amendment to a transportation funding bill that made $1.5 billion in Amtrak funds contingent on once again allowing train travelers to transport firearms in checked baggage. The Wicker Amendment passed the Senate by 68 to 30. In a statement Wednesday, Wicker called in the inclusion of the amendment in the final version of the transportation bill "an important victory for sportsmen and gun owners across the country."


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/congress-passengers-bring-guns-amtrak-trains/story?id=9290167

[marmar]

1. Just in case you gotta shoot up Union Station upon arrival in Washington.....

nt

[beyond cynical]

40. Just in case you need to defend yourself from one of the hoodlums

seen milling about the station.

[YOY]

2. As an Amtrak worker...I really don't have a problem with this.

Read it. It's just letting them transport thier weapons via checked baggage. Fine by me any day of the week.

Now if some asshole wants to pack heat on our trains? He can fucking walk.

[rwheeler31]

3. Loose their luggage.

[slackmaster]

48. Are you suggesting that someone engage in a criminal act here?

:crazy:

[Arctic Dave]

4. So when do we get start carrying pocket knives on planes again.

[rwheeler31]

5. Why do you need it on a plane or a train?

[Arctic Dave]

6. Spontaneous wittling, duh.

Or cutting off the pony tail of the snotty little brat kicking my chair.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. You can already check guns in your baggage on planes.

They never stopped that at all. You have to declare it, and they wrap your luggage with special tags and stuff, and viola, it's waiting for you when you pick up your baggage at your destination.

Some people need their firearms at the end of a trip. For instance, hunting trips, competitive shooting, sometimes even soldiers.

In fact, it's one good way to make sure your luggage actually arrives, and does so unpilloried by the baggage handlers, because they pay very careful attention to tracking and monitoring luggage with firearms in it.

So anyway, the same reasons you might check a firearm in your luggage on a plane, apply to trains. Unless you don't want us using the lower-carbon-emission mode of travel known as trains.

[slackmaster]

49. I used to always carry a Swiss Army knife everywhere, including on planes

The toothpick and drill come in particularly handy - for cleaning between my teeth and under fingernails.

[No Elephants]

36. Or tweezers, or nail clippers.

[Winterblues]

41. You can right now as well as a gun in your "checked baggage"

Just as they want to do on trains.

[Arctic Dave]

42. That isn't exactly carrying one on you.

[Winterblues]

46. The entire debate of this thread is not about carrying a gun on your person.

It is about having a gun in your "Checked Baggage". while I agree we should be allowed to carry a pocket knife on our person any place we want, it isn't really what this thread is about.

[benEzra]

57. You can. You just have to put it in your checked baggage, just like you do with a gun. (n/t)

[OswegoAtheist]

8. That's probably the only way the US will get a bullet train service! Badumbump!

Oswego "Please, try the veal" Atheist

[aikoaiko]

9. Its really no big deal. Checked guns in luggage do not pose a threat.

Its merely a rational, fair decision.

Who are these people on the House Homeland Security Committee who "previously expressed concern that allowing guns on Amtrak would heighten the risk of terror attacks like those on trains and train stations in Europe and India."

[Techn0Girl]

11. "Checked" baggage on Amtrak works differently...

At the smaller stations you carry your "checked" luggage to a man outside the train and he loads them in an outside compartment - much like on a bus.

But you are perfectly able to instead carry that luggage into the train itself and place it into the carry on section. And there I foresee a problem....

[aikoaiko]

13. Yes, but that insecure status on trains already existed and doesn't change as a result of this rule

There is already nothing to stop someone from packing an AR-15 in carry-on duffle on a train except the rule not to. Allowing people to lawfully check their guns in baggage doesn't change the insecure nature of trains.

[onehandle]

15. Jesus. Gungeon denizens are always complaining about a 'slippery slope.'

That slope doesn't just go one way.

The point is that now you can bring guns onto trains and yes it might end up in the passenger cabin.

Meaning that now, more guns will indeed end up in the passenger cabins because of this law.

Hooray for tempting fate!

[aikoaiko]

19. There is a difference between the slippery slope & imagining increased dangers where there are none

People will follow the rules or they won't. Right now there is very little to stop people from not following the rules. That hasn't changed.

All this rule does is allow people who are willing to follow the rules to travel with guns in checked luggage lawfully.

[friendly_iconoclast]

20. How dare you bring logic to a discussion of TERRA TERRA TERRA?

You're no better than those damned liberals who opposed President Bush's fearmongerin- um, err, wise leadership.

Oh, wait...

[onehandle]

14. Yep. I was running late once and that compartment was locked. They helped me in with it.

Then I removed my Constitutionally protected consumer item from my suitcase and waved it madly around the cabin.

Ok, my subject line was true. I pack underwear, not heat.

[AlbertCat]

17. Constitutionally protected consumer item

You're part of a militia?...and a weapon is just another consumer item....

Alrighty then!

:eyes:

[onehandle]

18. Yeah, the Constitution supposedly protects their guns, but not my iPod.

How is that fair?

Obama's gonna grab my iPod!

[slackmaster]

59. Your right to keep and bear an iPod is protected by the Ninth Amendment

Read up on it.

[quiller4]

61. For years hunters could check their guns in checked baggage-never an issue

now we have returned to that rational policy.

[704wipes]

64. Unless there is a way to fill one with an explosive device

Seems to me you could have what looks like a 'gun' on the outside but internally it could carry plastic explosives. If I could think of that....??

If there is ABSOLUTELY no way to do that then I guess it should be cool as you say...

[ButterflyBlood]

10. I'm fine with this

It only permits them in luggage and unloaded. Don't see a threat.

[onehandle]

12. "an important victory for sportsmen and gun owners across the country."

And McVeighs.

[friendly_iconoclast]

21. McVeigh was into rented trucks, but do go on with the baseless fearmongering.

Every little bit helps, dont ya know?

[Lurks Often]

43. Oh No!!!

Oh No!!!

It's the end of the world, let's run out around screaming and shouting because Congress approved a law that will allow UNLOADED AND LOCKED firearms in the cargo compartment of a train when the passengers don't have access to the cargo compartment. A law just like the one the airlines use. Please remind of the last time there was a shootout at 25,000 feet in a plane?

[onehandle]

52. LOL! Yeah, that's the same.

1) Checked luggage gets checked no matter what at airports. Frequently, not so on Amtrak.

2) Luggage scanners and metal detectors.

Pitiful try.

[Lurks Often]

54. fail on your part

What part of unloaded and locked and inaccessible to the passengers did you not comprehend?

[aquart]

16. Oh. Are they insane?

[friendly_iconoclast]

22. I don't recall any problem in the thirty years prior to 9/11 where this was done

Perhaps there were some train hijackings that escaped my notice. You *do* have some cites to back up your
criticism, I suppose?

[benEzra]

38. I don't know. Is it insane to treat trains like, you know, AIRLINERS? (n/t)

[old mark]

23. Good. Now lets get rid of the usless screening at airports, and most of

the "Patriot Act" and we can get back to where we were before Bush pissed on the Constitution.

FWIW, last time I was on a train station waiting platform, I was carrying anyway, "legal" or not.


mark

[cornermouse]

24. Reason to avoid riding on Amtrak. n/t

[pipoman]

25. If you will avoid Amtrak because of this,

you should be avoiding it anyway. If you have used Amtrak, what measures are, now, today, in place to keep some mass murderer from bringing a gun or knife or Molotov cocktail on a train? Answer: Not one single thing,,no security checkpoint, no metal detectors,,nothing except a policy and some signs which has proven completely ineffective over and over and over again. This is about packing firearms in baggage so the law abiding owner may take it from point A to point B for hunting, competitive shooting matches or for self defense as 43 states have legal concealed carry by licensed people, many of those states have reciprocation for permit holders.

[cornermouse]

26. Ahh...

The old "someone is waiting to murder people on Amtrak" argument. :eyes: Thereby proving that fear destroys brain cells and the ability to think.

[pipoman]

27. No, simply the inconvient truth

I'm not afraid of Amtrak, you're the one saying you will avoid Amtrak now, after passage of this bill which has not one single solitary effect on the safety of passengers at all..none..

[cornermouse]

28. Whatever you say, Bruce.

[pipoman]

30. Who is Bruce?

Obviously you have no desire to think critically where gunz is concerned.

What part of my response is unreasonable or untrue? Com'mon if you're going to defend your statement which implies that somehow this bill will effect your safety on Amtrak, lets hear it based on the facts, not some erroneous preconceived idea..

[cornermouse]

31. Do you prefer the name Walter?

1. A frightening number of people do not understand gun safety. For some reason they treat them almost like toys. (Real life ex: a deputy practicing his fast draw in the alley behind main street one day.)

2. Anyone who thinks they need a gun on their person at all times in all settings (see trains and planes) is paranoid and has no business being in contact with or control of a gun.

[pipoman]

33. Listen Hector, This bill has not one thing to do with concealed carry or quick draw

It merely brings travel restrictions to the exact same restrictions airlines now have. If I choose to go hunting in Colorado or North Dakota today I either have to drive or fly, this bill will allow a person the option of taking the train...it's that simple. There are a huge amount of hunters and competitive shooters who currently fly. As previously stated, if a person is bent on shooting up a train this bill will have zero effect. If you really want safer trains, Amtrak must put in security checkpoints with metal detectors just like the airports have, that is what you should be advocating. A rule, sign, or law has never once stopped a mass murderer.

[AtheistCrusader]

50. If you could read, you would see this is not about keeping guns ON YOUR PERSON.

Checked baggage is not ON YOUR PERSON.

[jefflrrp]

29. DAMMIT

stop using logic on these folks. After all, its better to use fear-mongering, scare-tactics and emotional appeals. You're a bad, bad person for advocating this. After all, guns should only be in the hands of our extremely dillegent police and armed forces. :sarcasm:

[cornermouse]

32. If you're hunting wildlife and obeying all hunting laws

and have asked for permission to hunt on the land that you're hunting on and the owner knows you're out there, I have no problem with that. The basic problem is that I'd rather not get shot by an idiot who thinks he's saving the train by shooting the passengers.

[pipoman]

34. Ohhhh, now I see, you didn't even bother reading the article

or you would know this only allows for transporting guns in checked baggage, just like on an air plane..

[AtheistCrusader]

51. The only thing that's going to shoot you is your own wild imagination.

This rule change does not allow people to be in posession of their firearms on the train.


CHECKED BAGGAGE, do you speak it?

[benEzra]

39. Don't fly on the airlines, then...

because this changes the train rules to match the airline rules. You've always been able to travel via airlines with an unloaded gun locked in your checked baggage in accordance with FAA regulations.

If you're scared that a Terrah-ist is going to jump out of the checked baggage in the cargo hold and start shooting up the hold with an unloaded gun, then I don't know what to say...

[slackmaster]

53. I assume you don't fly on commercial airlines

Right?

[Blandocyte]

35. Guns must be stored in Wicker basket?

[benEzra]

37. OH NOES!!! TREATING TRAINS LIKE AIRLINERS!!! THE HORROR!!!!!111

:eyes:

As I mentioned in the other thread, I've checked guns through on airliners before. Now I have the option of doing the same thing on a train, just like I could have before the Bush Administration changed the rules after 9/11 as part of their whole Terrah, Be Afraid!! thing. Get a grip, people.

[BennyD]

44. This does not bother me. n/t

[bluestateguy]

45. It sounds like Amtrak is being given enough time to implement the law

Unloaded, declared firearms in checked baggage is reasonable and it's what the airlines do.

[slackmaster]

47. Good

Restoration of any small piece of freedom without creating any risk to public safety is always a positive thing.

[proteus_lives]

55. I don't see any problem with this.

[classysassy]

56. The selling of the congress

so now the N.R.A. owns part of our worthless congress.?

[benEzra]

58. Yeah, how DARE they treat trains like AIRLINERS!

There are in excess of 80 million lawful gun owners in this country. A lot of us use Amtrak, just like we use airlines.

Allowing trains to be treated like airliners with regard to checked baggage rules is neither a ZOMG TERRAH!!!! issue, nor is it a sellout to the NRA or anyone else. It's merely a return to the pre-Bush-overreaction rules.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

60. Do Amtrak passengers go through a metal detector?

It's been a while since I rode a train. Does TSA inspect passengers and carry-on luggage?

:hi:

[quiller4]

62. Not at any station I've used. All my train travel has been on the West Coast

since 9/11. I've never had any kind of security check in Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma or Portland.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

63. That's how I remember it

No security check, no metal detector, that's my memory of a few long-haul passenger trains as well as some subways and many buses.

So basically, we don't know who on a train might be carrying a gun. Or who in the theater or the restaurant or bar or church.