Days after a man allegedly used an Amtrak train to transport firearms across the country in an attempt to kill the president, the railroad is considering a rule change that would make it easier to bring guns aboard nearly all of its trains, two people familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.
Under the proposed change, Amtrak would add lockboxes to every train, with only the conductor holding the key. Currently, firearms are allowed only in checked baggage on the couple dozen routes that have locked baggage cars — a policy that mirrors commercial airline rules. The shift would open gun transport to more than 1,500 daily trains, including the crowded Northeast Corridor, which carries about 750,000 passengers each day.
Trump administration officials have been urging Amtrak to relax its gun restrictions since early 2026, the people said. The railroad has not abandoned the plan despite Saturday’s arrest of Cole Tomas Allen, who authorities say traveled by Amtrak from his home in Torrance, California, to Washington, D.C., with a shotgun and semiautomatic pistol. Allen was arrested after he allegedly tried to race past security barricades near the hotel ballroom hosting the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, prompting an exchange of gunfire with Secret Service agents. A Secret Service officer wearing a bullet-resistant vest was shot in the vest and survived.
Amtrak declined to say whether Allen followed the railroad’s existing rules, which would have required him to declare the guns and allow Amtrak to lock them with his checked bags. A lawyer for Allen said he has no criminal record and is presumed innocent.
John Feinblatt, president of the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, condemned the proposal. “Just days after a man took an Amtrak train to Washington with a shotgun and pistol and tried to assassinate the president and other federal officials, the Trump Administration is trying to open the floodgates for firearms on every Amtrak route, while also moving to hollow out the agency responsible for enforcing gun laws and preventing gun trafficking,” he said. “This will only make Americans less safe and Congress must step in before the next tragedy.”
Officials at Amtrak and the Transportation Department did not immediately respond to questions about the gun policy.
Under the current system, passengers who want to bring firearms are required to declare them, store them unloaded in a hard case, and place them in checked baggage. The proposed change would still require guns to be locked aboard trains, but it is unclear how Amtrak would determine whether a passenger is legally allowed to possess a firearm under the laws of their destination — which vary widely. In New York City, for example, tight restrictions require permits, while many other jurisdictions have looser rules.
Unlike airports, Amtrak does not screen passengers or their luggage, and it does not run passenger names through criminal databases. At unstaffed stations across the country, passengers often board and ride for several minutes before a conductor makes contact or scans a ticket — a period during which a gun could remain unsecured under the new system.
Sheldon Jacobson, a security expert whose research contributed to the design of the TSA PreCheck system, said railroads should do more to screen passengers at the point of ticket sale by collecting more information and checking backgrounds. But he said it is not possible to eliminate guns on trains when there is no practical way to enforce the rule. “The initial condition is that there’s almost 400 million guns in this country,” he said. “Then work from there as opposed to trying to create a utopian environment where there’s not guns and we’re going to keep it that way.”
Jacobson said the cost of creating an airport-style screening system at every train station would not be justified by the risk, which is lower in rail travel than in aviation. He acknowledged, however, that the calculation would change if a major tragedy occurred. “You have to weigh the risks and rewards. And you have to say, where are we going to put our money to get the greatest risk reduction for the greatest benefit with the least inconvenience to people?” he said.
Rail unions have been trying for nearly a decade to strengthen protections for passenger rail workers, following incidents such as a 2017 shooting of a conductor in Naperville, Illinois. Two bills pending in Congress would make it a federal crime to interfere with or assault a rail worker performing their duties, mirroring protections already in place for airline crews.
Amtrak and many other ground transportation companies barred weapons on trains and buses after the Sept. 11 attacks, but none put screening measures in place to detect or prevent firearms. In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring Amtrak and other companies to allow firearms to be transported as long as they are checked.