Florida Shooters Network

Can you carry on AMTRAK? I see information saying I must declare firearms and have them locked inside checked baggage. There is no mention of CCW. Anyone dealt with this issue before. The hypothetical travel would be entirely inside the State of Florida.

MiamiOffshore wrote: ↑Thu Oct 15, 2020 11:00 pm Can you carry on AMTRAK? I see information saying I must declare firearms and have them locked inside checked baggage. There is no mention of CCW. Anyone dealt with this issue before. The hypothetical travel would be entirely inside the State of Florida.

No, you can't. Firearms are prohibited in the passenger compartment of all Amtrak trains. You can only do the "checked baggage" procedure you describe above. And, to reiterate, the check baggage procedure applies only to long distance trains that have a baggage car with a steel cage. This would then exclude all the Amtrak commuter train services (e.g. BOS -- Wash DC Metro-liner or "Acela"), etc. and the "AutoTrain." I know for a fact that you cannot even transport your firearms in your car on the AutoTrain. They often have a dog that searches for the smell of weapons (gunpowder) and will alert on them. I used to take the Autotrain when going back and forth between my (former) home in NJ and FL. I then started driving the entire distance, thereafter.

The above info is accurate.
That is why I quit using Auto-Train.

Concealed is not "illegal" on Amtrak, just not allowed:

https://www.amtrak.com/firearms-in-checked-baggage

I carry on Tri Rail between Palm Beach, & Miami. Never saw a sign that said I couldn’t. GARY.

N4KVE wrote: ↑Fri Oct 16, 2020 5:05 pm I carry on Tri Rail between Palm Beach, & Miami. Never saw a sign that said I couldn’t. GARY.

Tri-Rail is not Amtrak. It's the "South Florida Regional Transportation Authority." The policy is for Amtrak pax. & trains. Now, maybe the RTA has a policy and maybe it doesn't. I don't know.

According to the Tri Rail website...
Firearms/Weapons
State law prohibits the carrying of concealed firearms. It is also unlawful for any person to openly carry any firearm or electric weapon or device. Persons in the possession of a license issued by the State of Florida to carry a concealed weapon or firearm are exempt from the concealed weapons prohibition. Secs. 790.01, 790.053 and 790.06, Florida Statutes.

Interesting I guess that cancels that trip to the north using that mode of transportation

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Do they take the dogs through the passenger compartment, or boarding areas? Suppose I am wearing jeans I had been wearing while at the range. Probably have some gunpowder residue. I can just see the dog "alerting" , a big fuss made, all for nothing. As a general comment, this dog nonsense needs to be brought down a few notches, or more. There have been too many documented cases of dogs getting "signals" to alert, giving a fake probable cause for further disruption of someone's life.

REDinFL wrote: ↑Mon Dec 21, 2020 9:38 am Do they take the dogs through the passenger compartment, or boarding areas? Suppose I am wearing jeans I had been wearing while at the range. Probably have some gunpowder residue. I can just see the dog "alerting" , a big fuss made, all for nothing. As a general comment, this dog nonsense needs to be brought down a few notches, or more. There have been too many documented cases of dogs getting "signals" to alert, giving a fake probable cause for further disruption of someone's life.

Yes, they do. At least, when I was riding, they did.. I've seen the dog search the passenger terminal in Lorton Va, for the Autotrain as passengers were waiting to board (that's done regularly, actually as the dog needs a break from the Virginia Heat). I've also see them bring a dog onto an Amtrak regional train when it stopped at Baltimore. That, and I've seen dogs in the Washington DC terminal as passengers waited.

I think you'll find the dog activity is more located in the Wash DC HQ area than in outlying stations/posts. Makes sense, as DC is their national HQ area. The dogs are very well trained to alert only on specific things. While there are some that, perhaps, are trained for regular gunpowder, I'm thinking most are going to be trained towards the C4 (Cemtex, etc.) plastic explosives spectrum (or other nitrates). Standard "gunpowder" would, as your above scenario describes, produce too many "false positives" as people are not likely to clean their vehicles (nor their clothes) well enough to eliminate the trace scents on which the dog would pick up and alert. I wouldn't think the Amtrak Police would want (or have the time) to deal with the fallout of all that.