The vote of the day is definitely the one on Sen. Wicker’s (R-MS) amendment to the Transportation & HUD Appropriations bill that allows all Amtrak travelers to carry weapons and ammo in their checked baggage. It passed 68-30. So, the next time you use Amtrak, remember to bring your firearms. But, you know, don’t forget to check them. The NRA rules our world.
I’m not really a gun control kind of a guy. I support the original (traditional) interpretation of the Second Amendment that it doesn’t create a federal right to bear arms that overrides local laws. But I prefer each locality to create their own gun laws. Philadelphia should be allowed to have more gun restrictions than the state of Pennsylvania as a whole. I think that flexibility is useful and politically smart. People are happier that way.
I think there is a place for some state and federal laws limiting the sale and purchase of guns and ammunition, but they should restrict themselves to dealing with registration and safety. In other words, leave it to local governments to determine their tolerance for guns, but make sure that it is difficult to own an unregistered, untraceable gun, or to sell them.
I probably have a center-left position on this issue, but it fits into my generally libertarian temperament. But I can’t see the benefit of making the federal railways a gun-smuggling conduit.
Temperamentally I agree about flexibility. The catch is, how do you have local gun laws when some loony from just over the border brings in his assault weapons and mows down your citizens. It ends up being kind of like letting each municipality decide how much pollution their factories can emit — just another Libertarian pipe dream.
I guess you can check weapons on airplanes, right? So it probably makes no real difference to let it happen on trains, too. Pisses me off how easily this NRA pander sneaked through, though.
yup.
I think the difference is that airlines have had (in the past, like the 30’s-50’s) more freedom to set their own baggage rules, but that Amtrak being a quasi-public creature of more modern times, would have had to push for rule-changes to allow guns in bags, but never felt pressure to do so.
So it’s all a big yawner.
BTW, if you read Scheier’s security blog, you’ll know that checking a firearm in a bag on a flight is a sure way to make absolutely sure that the airline doesn’t lose your bag. There’s an entire parallel bag-handling system (and TSA can’t open ’em either…) with rigorous tracking.
You need special bags, but the “firearm” could be a starter’s pistol. Plus all the other stuff you don’t want to lose.
The one downside for Amtrak is if they have to implement a similar system, but lack funding for it. Someone needs to put the screws on the GOP sponsors of this stuff to include funding. The squealing will be entertaining.
This reminds me of the town of Kennesaw down in Georgia where every head of household is required to own a gun and ammo.
http://www.rense.com/general9/gunlaw.htm
There are some loopholes apparently so no one is forced to own a gun if they don’t feel comfortable with the idea. Their crime rates are significantly lower than comparable cities surrounding Atlanta and they’ve gone over 25 years without a murder. I’m not advocating this idea and it was done primarily as a publicity stunt but the results have been interesting.
Is this an open carry, conceal carry, or packed in luggage provision.
If it’s legal, are they smuggling?
The next frontier for the NRA: guns on planes; think about that one.
What happens to the NRA when they get everything they want?
And the vote went on an urban/rural split. Allows some Democrats to dodge those “take away our guns” attacks.
And it provides the impetus to up the TSA theatrics on trains so that airlines won’t be at a competitive disadvantage.
Goodness all around.
link
Doesn’t seem so earthshaking except that it runs counter to all of the “stop the terrorists” nonsense of the past eight years.
Reckon folks can bring liquids on board?
Key word an unloaded firearm or starter pistol.
it’s typically shitty law. Notice he doesn’t define ‘small amounts of ammunition,’ which he should do by referencing some pre-existing law. So, now a judge has to decide if a crate of RPG’s qualifies.
But how can I
shoot peopleprotect myself if my gun is in my checked bag?It is an outrage that those who want to shoot people from a moving vehicle are limited to cars and motorcycles. I want my country back!
never mind gun smuggling, this is seriously dangerous. quite a few senators ride amtrak.
shorter bob casey: “i hope Joe Biden gets shot.”
think how easy it would be for a criminal to pull off something like that. Act nondescript and quiet on the train, wait til rush hour, stand near the door as the train pulls up to the platform, and when the doors open it’s POP-POP-POP!
and then the guy disappears into the crowd during the ensuing chaos.
you’ll notice specter, who also rides amtrak, voted no.
Can’t someone do that now? There aren’t any security measures or metal detectors at the Amtrak train stations near me. Seriously. Baggage check-in is putting your luggage on a cart parked outside on the platform by the tracks.
For all I know people have been packing pistols on trains inside their luggage — or jackets — for years! How would anyone know?
i was always under the impression that all bags you bring on amtrak are checked.
but if that’s the case and I’m mistaken, it’s still objectionable for the reasons booman articulates: it makes it easier to smuggle guns across state lines.
Nope. I took a cross-country Amtrak trip with my family this summer and we carried our bags right onto the train and stowed them ourselves on the lower level of the sleeper car we were in. No one looked in our bags, there were no checks, dogs, nothing.
I suppose it is accurate to say that anyone could bring a gun on a train now, but it would be illegal (not that legalities stop people). If you make it legal, would there be more guns on trains b/c it’s suddenly okay? I would not be comfortable riding Amtrak if bringing guns on the train in checked baggage is legal.
Regardless, the bill states that Amtrak will lose federal funding if it doesn’t do this, and Amtrak has said they do not have the funding to put a system in place to adequately screen. Amtrak would be no more.
I’m guessing this won’t go far b/c of Biden’s love-affair with Amtrak and President Obama’s push to increase passenger rail travel, but we shall see.