Media dinner shooter case spotlights train security gaps on the Amtrak route

A case involving a shooter connected to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has renewed focus on how security is handled on long-distance trains, after federal authorities said a man accused in the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump was arrested with a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol brought on board an Amtrak train from California.

The incident followed a similar episode involving a man acting erratically on a train headed for Chicago, in which a rail worker alerted police and officers found guns and a pamphlet about crowd control in the man’s carry-on bag. Federal authorities said the dinner case was “almost two years” after that earlier arrest, underscoring what rail unions and passenger advocates described as an ongoing pattern of concern for train security.

Amtrak did not dispute the general facts reported about firearms and travel. An Amtrak spokesperson declined to discuss security details or whether the man charged in the dinner case, identified as Cole Tomas Allen, followed Amtrak’s protocol for transporting firearms, and the spokesperson said Amtrak is working with federal investigators to provide his travel information.

A lawyer representing Allen said he has no criminal record and is presumed innocent, according to the reporting.

Firearms allowed on trains, but passengers aren’t screened like at airports

Under Amtrak policy, firearms on trains must be declared, unloaded, and secured in a hard case, and they must meet certain size and weight requirements. The weapons are allowed only in checked baggage, with rules described as similar to policies for firearms transported via passenger airplane.

The policy environment differs from airports, the reporting said, because train passengers are not screened by security officials at stations. That includes boarding locations ranging from an unstaffed station in New Mexico to major hubs such as Washington’s Union Station, according to the account.

Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of government affairs and policy at the Rail Passengers Association, said that while Amtrak and other ground transportation companies barred weapons on trains and buses after Sept. 11, none put security measures in place to detect or screen every passenger for firearms. He pointed to a 2010 congressional law requiring Amtrak and other carriers to allow firearms to be transported as long as they are checked.

In most situations, Jeans-Gail said checked firearms are secured and placed on baggage cars that are accessible only to employees. But the reporting said some trains do not have dedicated baggage cars; in those cases, former Amtrak employees described zip-tying and labeling the bags to indicate a firearm is present so workers can see if the contents are tampered with.

Jeans-Gail said it is “a little hard” to take a train hostage in the same way as an airplane, and he said Amtrak has been “safe from gun violence largely,” describing the main incidents as police shootings or interdictions.

Railway worker unions began requesting Amtrak and other companies review security during the COVID-19 pandemic, when enforcing a mask mandate on trains was difficult, the reporting said. They pressed again after an influx of participants in the Jan. 6 riots traveled to Washington by train and rowdy behavior raised concerns during trips home.

Jared Cassity, national safety and legislative director for the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division union, or SMART-TD, said conductors and other on-train workers often do not speak publicly about incidents for fear of retaliation from the company. He described operator assaults as a common topic within the union and said guns on trains ranked second or third among workers’ concerns.

Cassity said SMART-TD has had some success advancing state legislation and has two bills pending before Congress. He said the bills would address jurisdictional challenges that can make it harder to arrest and charge someone when a rail worker is assaulted and would make interfering with a rail worker during their duties a crime comparable to interfering with airline employees on flights.

Cassity said the conductor who identified the alleged potential mass shooter in 2024 had recently taken union-sponsored security training, and that while recognition followed, the arrest did not receive much news coverage. The reporting also contrasted that with a 2022 fatal shooting on an Amtrak train near Lee’s Summit, Missouri, which drew media attention after the train did not stop for staff to seek medical help until it reached a station, delaying care.

In that Missouri case, a federal jury found in 2024 that Amtrak should pay 90% of a $158 million award to the man’s family, the reporting said, describing allegations that included failure to implement reasonable security measures.

Advocates and consultants argue security staffing and station-by-station coverage are obstacles

Michael Callanan, a former Amtrak employee now working as a rail safety consultant, said he has heard about other security incidents involving smuggling drugs and other illegal items, which he attributed to the lack of security screenings.

Callanan said Amtrak police officers are not comparable to TSA agents, and he described their role as patrolling stations, conducting track checks, and sometimes riding lines and walking trains. He suggested territory coverage can be difficult for a single officer, saying there is “one officer” he believes patrols “from Orlando to Miami,” and he said security needs improvement.

Callanan also said the company has been reluctant to invest in security and infrastructure and suggested that an event like the current case could push funding decisions.

For rail passenger advocates, changes may be more complex than simply expanding TSA-style screening. Jeans-Gail said the Rail Passengers Association supports increasing Amtrak police patrols on trains but is not in favor of adding TSA-like security before boarding at the roughly 500 Amtrak stations across the country.

He said expanding screening would be impractical because station access varies widely, from highly active locations with multiple points of entry to more rural sites with limited traffic. He also said the union is not expecting a one-size-fits-all approach comparable to airports where traffic can be filtered to specific points.

Cassity said the union wants the conversation to begin and argued that the focus should shift from relying on the idea that trains are inherently safer to finding ways to prevent guns from getting onto trains “freely,” while acknowledging that securing more rural stations could be challenging.