The case of a man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Association dinner has reignited concerns about security on passenger trains. Union representatives and safety consultants argue that this incident is the latest example of someone allegedly using the country's passenger rail system to smuggle guns for an attack.
The Incident
Almost two years ago, a man acting erratically on a train headed for Chicago was spotted by a rail worker who alerted police. Officers discovered guns and a pamphlet about crowd control in his carry-on bag, along with a plan for a mass casualty event. Now, federal authorities say the same man, charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump, was arrested with a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol he brought to Washington, D.C., on an Amtrak train from California.
This incident underscores ongoing security vulnerabilities in long-distance ground transportation. Union officials representing on-train employees warn that unless Amtrak and other companies address passenger screening and station security, such incidents will continue.
Amtrak's Firearm Policy
An Amtrak spokesperson declined to discuss security details or confirm whether Cole Tomas Allen followed the company's protocol for transporting firearms. Amtrak requires firearms to be declared, unloaded, secured in a hard case, and checked as baggage, similar to airline policies. However, unlike airports, train passengers are not screened by security officials, whether boarding at a small unstaffed station in New Mexico or at Washington's Union Station.
Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of government affairs at the Rail Passengers Association, noted that after 9/11, Amtrak and other ground transportation companies barred weapons on trains and buses but did not implement screening measures. In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring Amtrak to allow firearms as checked baggage. On trains without dedicated baggage cars, bags are zip-tied and labeled to indicate a firearm is present, allowing workers to detect tampering.
“It is a little hard to take a train hostage, to say it is different than the post 9/11 concerns raised regarding an airplane,” Jeans-Gail said. “Amtrak has been safe from gun violence largely. The main incidents have been police shootings or interdictions.”
Union Concerns
Railway worker unions have been pressing for enhanced security since the COVID-19 pandemic, when enforcing mask mandates proved challenging. Concerns grew after participants in the January 6 riots traveled to Washington by train, with rowdy behavior on return trips raising alarms.
Jared Cassity, national safety and legislative director for the SMART-TD union, said assaults on operators are the most common concern, but guns on trains rank second or third. He noted that a conductor who identified the alleged potential mass shooter in 2024 had just completed union-sponsored security training. Two bills pending in Congress would clarify jurisdictional issues for assaults on rail workers and make interfering with a rail worker a crime comparable to interfering with an airline employee.
A 2022 fatal shooting on an Amtrak train near Lee's Summit, Missouri, highlighted security gaps. The train did not stop for medical attention until reaching a station, delaying care. In 2024, a federal jury ordered Amtrak to pay 90% of a $158 million award to the victim's family for negligence, including failure to implement reasonable security measures.
Michael Callanan, a former Amtrak employee and rail safety consultant, said he has heard of other incidents involving smuggling drugs and illegal items due to the lack of security screenings. “They never want to spend money on infrastructure or security,” Callanan said. “Maybe this shooter will be a significant enough event to push Amtrak to fund things.” He noted that Amtrak police officers, unlike TSA agents, patrol vast territories, with one officer covering from Orlando to Miami.
Geographic Challenges
Jeans-Gail said the Rail Passengers Association supports increasing Amtrak police patrols but opposes TSA-style screening at all 500 stations. “The thought of expanding that, even outside of logistical issues, if you look at the experience of riding the Amtrak network it’s very impractical because it ranges from New York's Penn Station where it's very active, many points of access to the station, unlike an airport where all traffic is filtered to specific points. Then you have Whitefish, Montana, on the other side of the spectrum — a rustic structure with not a lot of traffic.”
Cassity acknowledged the challenge but urged action. “We have to change the narrative about safety and realize something has to be done to prevent guns from getting onto the trains freely. We sympathize with the challenge this is for Amtrak. When you start talking about how you secure the most rural places, and those being the majority of stations, it becomes a daunting, daunting task. But we need to have the conversation.”
