transit54
Conductor
In the two years I spent in the airline industry, I checked many guns for people. And since it was brought up, I also checked coolers of meat from their hunting.
There really aren't a lot of differences between Amtrak and the airlines in this regard. And I don't really think that this is as much of a security issue as it's made out to be.
Here are the basic differences:
1) There's no TSA. Airline procedure for checking firearms involved ensuring the gun was in proper case for transport, flagging down a TSA agent trained to inspect firearms (I worked in a fairly small airport, usually there were probably 1-2 working out of perhaps 20 or 25 TSA agents on duty) and having the TSA agent inspect the gun in front of the owner (namely that it was unloaded, restrictions as far as the amount of allowable ammunition were aided by, etc, etc). Some paperwork was done, the gun case was locked and sent on its way. I'm not sure how relevant this inspection is for Amtrak, but they'd probably have to train their baggage personnel to do it if they needed to.
2) Baggage security is not as tight. Aircraft are loaded/unloaded in a secure area not accessible to the public and baggage is brought to a baggage claim area. At many stations, I've just seen bags unloaded right onto the platform. Potentially it could be argued that it would be easier to steal a gun in this sort of a situation, but I don't really know how valid that argument would be.
To be honest, I just don't think that this issue is as big as most are making it out to be. People check guns on airlines all the time, its very standard procedure and perfectly safe. The vast majority of guns I saw checked in my time in the airlines were various types of rifles for hunting. I think the only question Amtrak faces is whether they think they're equipped to safely transport firearms from place to place without a risk of loss or theft. Perhaps they just don't want to deal with the liabilities of loosing someone's gun. But I don't think it's a security issue, per se.
There really aren't a lot of differences between Amtrak and the airlines in this regard. And I don't really think that this is as much of a security issue as it's made out to be.
Here are the basic differences:
1) There's no TSA. Airline procedure for checking firearms involved ensuring the gun was in proper case for transport, flagging down a TSA agent trained to inspect firearms (I worked in a fairly small airport, usually there were probably 1-2 working out of perhaps 20 or 25 TSA agents on duty) and having the TSA agent inspect the gun in front of the owner (namely that it was unloaded, restrictions as far as the amount of allowable ammunition were aided by, etc, etc). Some paperwork was done, the gun case was locked and sent on its way. I'm not sure how relevant this inspection is for Amtrak, but they'd probably have to train their baggage personnel to do it if they needed to.
2) Baggage security is not as tight. Aircraft are loaded/unloaded in a secure area not accessible to the public and baggage is brought to a baggage claim area. At many stations, I've just seen bags unloaded right onto the platform. Potentially it could be argued that it would be easier to steal a gun in this sort of a situation, but I don't really know how valid that argument would be.
To be honest, I just don't think that this issue is as big as most are making it out to be. People check guns on airlines all the time, its very standard procedure and perfectly safe. The vast majority of guns I saw checked in my time in the airlines were various types of rifles for hunting. I think the only question Amtrak faces is whether they think they're equipped to safely transport firearms from place to place without a risk of loss or theft. Perhaps they just don't want to deal with the liabilities of loosing someone's gun. But I don't think it's a security issue, per se.
