Amtrak passengers can bring guns aboard next month

[Guest trigem]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/30/104488/amtrak-passengers-can-bring-guns.htm

lAmtrak passengers can bring guns aboard next month

By Tony Bizjak | The Sacramento Bee

Reversing a near decade-long ban, Amtrak will allow passengers to bring guns on most trains starting next month, including several that stop in Sacramento.

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, 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.

The gun allowance applies to most Amtrak trains, including the San Joaquin service connecting Sacramento to Oakland and the Central Valley. However, the gun ban remains in place on Capitol Corridor trains, which connect Auburn, Sacramento and Davis with the Bay Area, but don't have checked baggage service.

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.

Read more: Amtrak passengers can bring guns aboard next month | McClatchy

[Guest CJK]

Good. Love travelling by train, and even though it usually (except in the Northeast Corridor) takes longer than travelling by air, at least one can avoid being sexually assaulted by the TSA (motto: "We handle more packages than UPS") at every opportunity.

[Guest mustangdave]

Guns on TRAINS...in CALIFORNIA...has to be a hoax...besides I heard that the TSA will be manning the gates at train stations NEXT

[daddyo]

Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign has deemed train travel "less safe" due to this new policy. However, no comment from him on how an UNLOADED weapon makes a train "less safe".

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign has deemed train travel "less safe" due to this new policy. However, no comment from him on how an UNLOADED weapon makes a train "less safe".

Well DaddyO, the reason for that is because in order to make a statement as to "how" it makes travel less safe, Mr Helmke would have to use logic and facts, and as we know those folks have some sort of severe adverse reactions to such things, they make them gasp, go wide eyed and suck air. Sometimes they even turn blue in the process.

I am just glad that there are a whole lot of us who were not born with that defect.

[daddyo]

Well DaddyO, the reason for that is because in order to make a statement as to "how" it makes travel less safe, Mr Helmke would have to use logic and facts, and as we know those folks have some sort of severe adverse reactions to such things, they make them gasp, go wide eyed and suck air. Sometimes they even turn blue in the process.

I am just glad that there are a whole lot of us who were not born with that defect.

I have even heard stories of some of them curling up into a ball and sucking their thumb.

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

Its just too bad that the "facts and logic disease" doesn't cause spontaneous internal combustion.

Now that would be wAy cool:cool: and it would solve a whole lot of problems. Unemployment, the budget deficit, gun laws, lying politicians the list goes on and on.