Paul Wellman
As of December 15, Amtrak passengers are allowed to take their unloaded, secured guns with them on train trips.
Planes, Trains, and Semi-Autos
Amtrak Allows Guns on Board
Friday, December 31, 2010
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Share ArticleWith the recent enactment of a federal policy that allows its passengers to ride the rails with their guns, Amtrak created nearly 150 “bullet trains” overnight. The change, which went into effect December 15, was mandated by legislation passed in December 2009 and lifts the weapons ban Amtrak put in place in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
If any of Amtrak’s 74,000 daily passengers wish to pack heat on their trip, however, they must follow a set of guidelines that closely mirrors the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rules for flying with firearms: Guns, which must be unloaded, are only allowed in checked bags and have to be locked in a hard-shell case. Larger guns (shotguns, rifles) are stored in a secure cabinet within the baggage car, but smaller guns (handguns) can be packed within a regular checked suitcase. Passengers are required to give Amtrak at least 24-hour notice if they plan on checking firearms and/or ammo and must fill out a declaration form on the day of their trip. Guns still aren’t allowed anywhere on Amtrak buses. The policy is spelled out in its entirety on Amtrak’s Web site.
The legislation was authored by Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) who lauded the policy’s implementation two weeks ago. “This provision protects Americans’ Second Amendment right and is a small but important step in eliminating bias against gun owners,” he said in a statement. Gun Owners of America, the lobbying group instrumental in getting the ban shot down, similarly saw the decision as a fair one: “Those who travel by train who wish to bring a firearm to their destination for self-protection will be able to do so,” said GOA lobbyist John Velleco. “It’s also good news for hunters and others who have a need to transport personal firearms while traveling.” The National Rifle Association also gave the new law its stamp of approval.
Amtrak, explained spokesperson Steve Kulm, spent the last year beefing up security measures to make sure its passengers and employees remain safe with weapons nearby as they travel over 21,000 miles of routes across 46 states. Around $2 million, he said, was spent on installing secure storage sites at stations that offer checked baggage service (like Santa Barbara’s downtown station, but not the Goleta stop), modifying 142 baggage cars “to improve and secure firearm transport,” and implementing a training program for Amtrak employees.
While Kulm said he and the Amtrak higher-ups are confident that all proper precautions have now been taken to ensure the safety of all on board, the government-owned corporation initially pushed up against the idea of rescinding the nearly decade-long ban when Senator Wicker submitted his revised legislation to the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (THUD). Amtrak’s gun ban was enacted shortly after 9/11 and then ratcheted up to include the prohibition of all weapons after the rash of train bombings in Madrid, London, Mumbai, and Moscow in recent years.
In a letter sent to the subcommittee’s chairperson in September 2009, Amtrak’s Board of Directors chairperson, Thomas Carper, made it clear that major security system overhauls and upgrades were needed in order to make the transition a smooth one, and that comparisons to the airline industry and its handling of firearms were unfair. “Unlike the airline industry, Amtrak has no system in place for a uniform system of screening for weapons,” he wrote. “At airports, all checked baggage including firearms are separately screened by TSA in secure loading areas of an airport.” Carper also expressed worry that baggage cars were, at that point, accessible by passengers, and that Amtrak has no secure loading areas as baggage is often loaded on the same platform where passengers board.
Kulm said that while Amtrak has made it so passengers can’t get into baggage cars and implemented the use of locked transport carts in loading areas, there is currently no system in place to confirm the contents of a checked gun case. In fact, he admitted, cases aren’t opened by security personnel on a regular basis, only if one is part of a random screening.
This fact worries Toni Wellen and other members of the Santa Barbara-based group Coalition Against Gun Violence. Claiming that, in general, the “ease of access to firearms has proven over and over to be an issue of serious concern,” Wellen said it’s problematic that Amtrak doesn’t have a way to verify what kind of firearm a person says he or she has in a gun case. “The individual could be transporting a dozen assault weapons, one .50 caliber sniper rifle (both of which are illegal in California), or a hunting rifle,” she said. “This individual could be a terrorist, a felon who purchased the weapons illegally, a person with a mental health history, or just a guy going hunting.” There are just too many “what ifs” for her and the group to be comfortable with the policy, Wellen summed up.
Many gun-toting Santa Barbarans, it seems, are unaware of Amtrak’s new provision. Calls to a number of nearby gun stores as well as Winchester Gun Club yielded no one who had heard of the lifted ban. Initial reactions, though, were positive. Rick Dodge of Dodge City Shooters Supply said the new policy only makes sense, explaining that taking a rifle on the train on the way to a hunting ground or competition is no different than bringing a set of golf clubs on vacation. Rick Helfrich of Goleta Valley Gun and Supply was mainly indifferent, saying he thinks the news won’t create any real stir or affect passengers one way or another.
But once confronted with details of the new law, Amtrak commuters did express some strong sentiments. Santa Barbara resident Guy Mariano spoke to The Independent at the downtown station as he waited for his train to Oakland and said the lifted ban “could be very problematic.” Concerned less about possible terrorist threats, Mariano said he’s more worried about unhinged people getting their hands on a gun while in a train. “It happens,” he said. “People go nuts.”
Susannah Dahill, on her way to Salem, said she’s already had a hair-raising experience with an on-board weapon and doesn’t want another. She said she was recently travelling on an Amtrak train when a “kook who had a gun” tried to rob a meal car. Dahill said she didn’t learn what had happened until later in the day. The train had abruptly stopped between stations, she explained, and the gunman was whisked away in handcuffs.
Oakland resident Pete Latta, on his way back home, said he believes in the right to bear arms, but that “there’s already an excessive number of guns available out there.”
“Really,” he asked, “why would you need to take your gun on a train?”
Susannah Lopez contributed to this report.
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Before anyone goes around calling this new policy "problematic," let's look at what it allows: Law-abiding citizens can now transport their weapons, safely stowed and locked, when traveling by train.
I haven't read the text of the policy yet, but I am going out on a limb to say that it doesn't allow felons, meal-car robbers, and "unhinged" people to pack heat in the seat next to you. In fact, nearly every fear and "problematic" scenario raised by those who were interviewed are issues that have nothing to do with this particular policy. The concerns raised in the article are general gun control and law enforcement issues. More and more in America the majority is being penalized by all-for-show efforts to stave off the "evil doers" -- how many bombs have been found in airports by making people take their shoes off the past few years?
Here are the questions I have regarding Amtrak's gun policy: 1) Was there a problem with gun violence on trains prior to 9/11 and, if so, how many fatalities occurred? 2) Was there a problem with gun violence subsequent to 9/11, and, if so, how many fatalities occurred? 3) Is there any security screening prior to boarding a train to dissuade an actual terrorist or loon from simply carrying a gun illegally onto a train? 4) What does a group of terrorists flying a plane into a building have to do with me transporting my legal firearm with me from point A to point B?
I propose that 2011 be the year when we collectively quit allowing fear to dismantle the constitution.
3domfighter (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2010 at 9 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I thoroughly enjoyed that
a_native_man (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2010 at 9:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"bullet trains" ... haha, good one Tyler!
I can't wait for Samuel L. Jackson's new movie, "Guns on a Train".
EastBeach (anonymous profile)
December 31, 2010 at 3:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
"Guns are for criminals" Feinstein must be going crazy.
JohnLocke (anonymous profile)
January 1, 2011 at 9:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I grew up with guns. They adorned the wall of my father's and uncle's dens. I started hunting with my father when I was 10 years old. Over the years, guns were common birthday and Christmas presents. My brothers and I are all fair marksmen and we have all slaughtered our fair share of game both antlered and feathered. But you know, somehow I just cannot relate to the gun nuts nowadays. They seem an immature and paranoid lot given to action movie fantasies and imagining bad guys lurking in the garden bushes. I have lived in many places in this country and foreign cllimes during my life and never once felt the need to pack a gun for protection. In fact, ever since I lost the taste for hunting, I have got rid of all my guns. It's time to put away childish things.
Eckermann (anonymous profile)
January 1, 2011 at 3:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
So the gun store people reacted positively to lifting of the ban. Whoda thunk it? Sheesh.
"I propose that 2011 be the year when we collectively quit allowing fear to dismantle the constitution."
--3domfighter
Boy, there's a laff riot. We'll meet here next year to see how that worked out. During the presidential campaign, the Republicans will make Fear the official national emotion. JohnLocke will approve. Remember, you read it here first.
SezMe (anonymous profile)
January 3, 2011 at 2:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)