Amtrak protested endlessly that they couldn’t allow guns on trains. Well, it turns out they can:
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.
Not sure why 24 hours advanced notice is required. Airlines don’t require that. Of course, the Brady Campaign says this is just going to make it that much easier for “makes it easier for terrorists to bring weapons on trains with intent to do harm.” Looks like the Brady folks are responsible for the twenty four hour notice thing.
Come on guys. What purpose does that serve other than to harass gun owners? You want to know why we can’t really have dialog? Stuff like this is the reason why. Is a terrorist going to give Amtrak 24 hours notice? Ian Argent had some useful observations yesterday:
Once the gun is out in the world, the owner can do anything with it. The law-abiding one will, of course, limit himself to the lawful activities. But not one of New Jersey’s many strict and serious firearms laws could stop me from loading up my legally-purchased and legally-owned limited-capacity magazines and my legally-purchased and legally-owned handgun, and going out to cause mischief. It’s worth noting, by the way, that, given my lifestyle and normal mode of dress, I could be carrying my handgun and a hundred rounds of ready ammo at any time I carry a pocketknife (which is most of the time) and had I been doing so there is essentially no chance I would have been discovered doing so.
Of course, I don’t do any such thing. For one thing, that much ammo is HEAVY. I could get by with probably 2 extra magazines. But, more seriously, I don’t carry because it is against the law, and I don’t have a pressing need to.
I have been carrying for about eight years now, and the only time I’ve ever had to present my license is because I was legally required to tell the officer I was armed (TX requirement). If I had been carrying illegally for eight years, without a license, I would have been able to get away with it. Given that reality, who do the Brady folks think is being deterred by these laws? Certainly not criminals. Definitely not terrorists. If one has a gun, the law can only amount to punishment after the fact, and since most of the unlawful things you can do with a gun carry hefty jail sentences, it seems rather redundant. Unless your goal is to punish the otherwise law abiding for not following the rules, or to frustrate the exercise of the right.
The Brady goal has nothing to do with crime or terrorism. Their goal is to frustrate the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right to the extent that they can get away with it. Nothing convinces me more of that than the fact that they pushed a 24 notice requirement on Amtrak.
Given that reality, who do the Brady folks think is being deterred by these laws? Certainly not criminals. Definitely not terrorists. If one has a gun, the law can only amount to punishment after the fact…
And punishment after the fact, though the only kind of restraint that can be acceptable in a free society, is exactly what gun control advocates say is so inadequate.
Much like how we started winning the gun control debate after we switched our message from “no, it’s all about sporting purposes, honest” to being up front about the importance of self defense, I think we’re soon going to hit a wall in our progress unless we change our message again.
We’re going to need to uncompromisingly insist that the only kind of gun control with a chance of preventing “gun violence” is total civilian prohibition. It almost certainly won’t work either, but nothing short of it could ever possibly work, because everybody knows somebody with a clean record. As long as an ordinary citizen with no criminal record can buy a gun, criminals will have access to the guns in the market.
If the only tactic that has a shadow of a chance of working is flatly unconstitutional, then all gun laws of prior restraint are completely indefensible.
Come on guys. What purpose does that serve other than to harass gun owners? You want to know why we can’t really have dialog? Stuff like this is the reason why.
You are absolutely correct Sebastian. What is the point of 24 hours of notice? Wouldn’t 12 suffice? Or 4, or 1, or none? What exactly is that waiting time used for? If the answer is nothing, than this is just another plot to harass gun owners.
If anything, it’s time for your Amtrak employee who’s also a part time gun runner to get a plan in place to snatch the gun from the compartment.
Things like that have been known to happen with airlines and common carriers, and none of them have advanced notice.
I’ll note that the Amtrak train from Boston to Maine has ZERO security. Haven’t actually rode it but I did help my wife get her bags onboard when she was going to Maine. I had a 1911 on me and nobody was the wiser.
And note that after they were ordered to start allowing firearms as checked baggage, it took them a friggin’ YEAR to ‘work out the details’, etc.
And Amtrak is worried about losing customers? Chalk one more reason for me not to take Amtrak to Washington DC for Jersey. I hauled my “arsenal” (3 guns and maybe a thousand rounds split between 9mm and .22lr) down to NoVA to shoot with family. Not having a car while there would merely have been annoying, since I was staying with family. Having to jump through hoops? Fugeddaboutit.
(I used to take the trian home from Jersey when I was in college, and I still miss it a bit).
@Elmo: “We’re going to need to uncompromisingly insist that the only kind of gun control with a chance of preventing “gun violence†is total civilian prohibition.” need to add “under the US Constitution to that. Spot-checking random pedestrians would certainly have a chance of preventing gun violence. Pesky 4th amendment
You would have thought the Left would be happy that hunters wanted to take mass transit to get to their destinations.