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Amtrak to allow passengers to pack guns

November 30, 2010

Amtrak will allow passengers to bring guns on most trains starting next month.  [Sacramento Bee]

The change, pushed by gun rights advocates and ordered by Congress, aligns Amtrak’s firearms policy with air travel rules that allow unloaded guns to be stored in locked baggage holds.

Federal Homeland Security officials on Monday said they are OK with guns being on trains as long as security protocols are enforced.

“It’s deemed safe and appropriate,” federal Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said. “If people follow the rules, it’s pretty simple.”

Under the policy, which reverses a decade-old ban, beginning Dec. 15, guns can be brought aboard trains that have checked baggage service. Gun owners must inform Amtrak officials 24 hours ahead of departure. Unloaded firearms must be packed in hard-sided containers and will be stored in train lockers.

Amtrak officials said the federally funded train system is retrofitting train cars for gun storage, but said they have no idea how many people will travel with firearms.

The policy change was pushed by the National Rifle Association and U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who called it a victory for people who want to carry firearms for sport or own them for safety.


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I guess this isn’t too bad as long as it’s just for transport. Hunters have to commute and people need to be able to transport weapons. I have no problem with hunters or in certain circumstances under rare occations I can understand why someone needs to carry a loaded gun. But why all you cavemen want to live like they do in the middle east is beyond me, I like to think of myself as more advanced or civilized than living in a backwards society where any crazy can pack heat in the bank, in the national parks or on a train. I guess some of you want to be able to go out and do loud tongue rolls and fire your guns in the air at weddings but not me and I don’t want to be around your loaded guns. There are lot of whack jobs that I wouldn’t feel comfortable sitting next to if I new that they had a loaded gun. I can’t imagine what meetings such as the OCSD meetings would be like if those whack jobs had loaded guns. Too many people don’t have the common sense or patients to cool down when ticked off. You have your right to have a gun and I have right to not be near it.


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Typoqueen, you must realize that you are already surrounded by loaded guns. If you go out in public, you are going to be within proximity of a bad guy or gang banger that is packing heat. It is simply a fact of life in our society in this state. The laws that prevent/prohibit ordinary citizens from discretely carrying a loaded firearm are completely ignored by the subset of society that will do you harm on a whim. The threat is ever present and very real.


Now, this begs to question: are you against the individual citizen’s right to defend themselves from real-world threats? Would you be against having me draw my weapon to defend your life when the gang bangers decide to shoot it out and you are in the crossfire?


You stated above “You have your right to have a gun and I have right to not be near it.” This is entirely correct, but which one of us gets barred? Does the man standing on the street corner preaching to the world get removed from the corner because someone doesn’t want to listen? Or, conversely, is he allowed to exercise his fundamental individual rights and you take your ears elsewhere?


We must not kid ourselves, the world we live in is a very dangerous place. Tens of thousands of prisoners are being released upon society, felons mingle amongst us, gang membership is surging, and criminals are entering our country from every corner of the earth. Are you the wolf, the sheep, or a bad mama-jama that refuses to go down without a fight?


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Criminals could not care less about society’s rules and laws. They ARE already carrying LOADED firearms wherever they go. Remember, gun control isn’t about guns, it is about control.


Arizona has adopted Constitutional carry and allows its citizens to carry openly or discretely. In essence, the bad guys in Arizona have no idea which or how many citizens have a firearm readily available. I really wish that the citizens of CA would wake up and take personal responsibility for their immediate safety and security. Police are great at investigating crime, but not so good at preventing crime at a personal level. When seconds count, the police are just minutes away.


We really need to have a simple system whereby CA citizens have the ability to discretely carry a firearm for their (and their family’s) personal protection. A movement is afoot to make this happen: http://www.gotcarry.org has more information. The supreme court has determined that citizens have the fundamental individual right to both keep and bear arms.


Lastly, look at the history of this nation and its gun control laws. At the root of these laws is one group in power oppressing the rights of a minority. Whether it is african Americans in the deep south, asians in CA, or whatever the case; racism has been at the foundation of gun control in America. This has manifested itself to the point where only rich political contributors are/where receiving concealed carry permits in many counties here in CA. Cronyism at its absolute worst: it has left the ordinary citizen unable to legally defend themselves while the rich are buying their constitutional rights. I put these actions at exactly the same level as the Jim Crow Laws of 1876-1865. The persons contributing to these laws and those persons supporting gun control are at the same level as any other group that have suppressed fundamental individual rights of citizens of this nation throughout its history. They all make me sick.


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WORD


Well said!


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Guns haven’t saved many innocent people, not even those innocent people with loaded guns in their home for protection. As a matter of fact citizens have more of a chance of getting injured from their own gun than actually protecting themselves from criminals. You people think that everyone that carries a gun is Roy Rogers but many of the people that want to carry loaded guns are unstable and shouldn’t even own a gun. We make you sick and you have your rights. Well what about us, don’t we have rights? Don’t I have the right to not be near your gun? I have a right to feel safe and I don’t feel safe with everyone carrying guns. Just reading some of these comments, especially the comments from some of the regulars at the Trib make me shudder think that they might be carrying a loaded gun. Everyone loses their temper. There are people that aren’t criminals with short fuses the kind that get mad and flip people off for going too slow on the freeway, we don’t need them with guns.


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Well….it’s a good start, at least. Perhaps someday in my lifetime the tide will turn and all this firearms paranoia will be behind us. Wishful thinking on my part, I know. We’ll always have the anti-gun liberals with their heads stuck in the sand.


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Well Geeez Paperboys, If we allow a person access to a loaded gun on a train then what do we do about criminals that would rob us or worse? I would rather see three guys with box cutters against 6 angry men that can kick their butt’s rather than one guy with a loaded against 20 that would like to kick their butts.


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Umm… A criminal doesn’t need permission to take a loaded gun on a train. They’re just going to do it anyway, and when they do, they’ll shoot you and the defenseless people who could have saved you had their guns not been locked up in the baggage compartment. I’d rather everyone on the train be allowed to carry loaded firearms. A criminal isn’t going to pull a weapon if other passengers are packing heat and ready to take him out. Guns in the right hands = Safety.


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“Guns in the right hands = Safety”

It’s true that when guns are outlawed only the outlaws have them. Personally, I’m all for allowing open carry because as we see, the outlaws do carry and the rest of the upstanding citizens are pawns. Either we ban hand guns altogether or we allow people to carry them. I for one will not give up my hand gun even though I have no desire to carry it outside my home.


Don’t they check people for weapons when they board a train?


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This sounds like classic right wing propaganda. “when guns are outlawed only the outlaws have them”. Japan has had some of the lowest crime rates in the world and they have very strict gun control laws. There are many years that Japan’s major cities go years with maybe one crime a year that involves a gun. I don’t care if you have a gun, I’ve had guns, I used to shoot skeet and trap at least 3 or 4 times a week but guns belong at home or/and for sport only.


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So you can have a gun on a train but it has to be unloaded and stored in the baggage compartment? Where a person can’t get to it if needed to thwart a terrorist takeover of the train?

Sounds a little like the rules of engagements for our overseas wars. Did the Pentagon come up with this policy?


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Um did you miss the part about being for transportation?? This isn’t for carrying for protection on the train.


I know a few hunters that have traveled to other states and do the same on airlines. You aren’t going to rent a gun when you get there.


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