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Mediahohoho
09/28/09

In reply to Oklahoma City Bombing Videos Turn Nothing Into Something
"There ain't no such thing a coincidence," is unusually weak sauce even for conspiracy nuts. Please, enlighten us as to what, specifically, happened and who was involved in the coverup. Or shut up.
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Edited by Mediahohoho at 09/28/09 1:29 PM Mediahohoho was starred Mediahohoho was unstarred

Mediahohoho
09/27/09

In reply to Oklahoma City Bombing Videos Turn Nothing Into Something
Well, according to Frank Gaffney, a retarded American working for a conservative think tank and appearing frequently on Chris Matthews' Hardball, Saddam Hussein, and not far right whackjobs McVeigh and Nichols, committed this bombing.

Maybe Gaffney should team up with this guy to rewrite the history of terrorism. I'm sure it would be entertaining.
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Edited by Mediahohoho at 09/27/09 10:25 PM Mediahohoho was starred Mediahohoho was unstarred

Uncle_Billy_Slumming
09/27/09

In reply to Oklahoma City Bombing Videos Turn Nothing Into Something
Nope. They've been coopted by fascists posing as socialists.
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krasny
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
Horrifying? I hope you do a followup post saying how wrong you are. Also, you might want to mention that you could do this before 2004. Did you really avoid Amtrak back then?

There is really no reason NOT to support this. Give me one scenario where this could turn out bad.
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skahammer promoted this comment krasny was starred krasny was unstarred

skahammer
09/18/09

@krasny: Unloaded, locked guns placed on board a crowded commuter train are retrieved, unlocked, loaded, and used to hold hostage hundreds of commuters at rush hour, with one passenger executed by multiple gunshots every ten minutes in full view of television cameras, until the U.S. government agrees to withdraw all forces from the Arabian peninsula, cease all drone aircraft flights from airbases in Central Asia, and withdraw loan guarantees to Israel that in effect help to extend credit to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
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krasny
09/28/09

@skahammer: Hundreds of commuters retrieve their guns, unlock them, load them and shoot the hijacker.
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WenonaKolling
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
If any one did a bit of searching on this, they would find that all weapons would be locked up in storage on the train. Inaccessible to the owner or others. Same way hunters travel with hunting weapons on planes.
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valarmorghulis promoted this comment The Lone Scout approved this comment WenonaKolling was starred WenonaKolling was unstarred

SpicyMeatball
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
Considering there is zero security on Amtrak trains as it is, I am a little confused as to why this would somehow be more dangerous? Seems a wee bit of the overreaction. If someone wanted to carry a gun on an Amtrak train these days, there would be nothing stopping them.
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Rendus
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
You can currently check unloaded guns in a locked container on aircraft. It's not as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. But then again, people are all about making big deals out of nothing these days.
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Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment Rendus was starred Rendus was unstarred

Cynical Media Bitch
09/17/09

@Rendus: Actually, making a big deal out of nothing is the raison d'être of this site.
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BadUncle
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
I hope this returns us all to the Golden Age of train robberies. I'll be in the stage coach.
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horseradish
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
What's stopping anyone from carrying any sort of firearm, loaded or unloaded, on an Amtrak train right now, on their person or in their baggage? There is no security to speak of. No scanning of people or bags. I was on a 14-hour trip two weeks ago and my TICKET wasn't even checked, much less my luggage. Or my holster.
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CaptainFantastic
09/17/09

@horseradish: I was wondering what type of security they had during boarding.
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Cynical Media Bitch
09/17/09

@CaptainFantastic: There's nothing to speak of on the Midwest and California routes. This probably stems from the difficulty of hijacking a train.
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CaptainFantastic
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
The mentally ill dude that is going to shoot up an Amtrak train 2 years from now will bring his loaded gun on the train despite this or any other law.
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meg9
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
They are going into CHECKED baggage though, which would mean that the NE corridor (which is carry on mostly) wouldn't have people sitting in coach with their guns in a bag in the overhead bin.

I've checked bags on amtrak before. Checked baggage on amtrak goes into baggage cars. You can't get to your checked baggage while you are on the train.

I rushed to click on this article when I thought it meant someone could just bring a gun onto an amtrak train, but that's not exactly what this means.
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Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
The real controversy is that the Republicans are calling it a safety and 2nd amendment right. If they just called it matching the gun control rules for trains to existing rules for planes, no one would have noticed or cared.
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Schadenfriend
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
Hi, a rare gun-owning Gawker reader here (like Sasquatch!). Generally not a crazy person. At least, I don't take 'em to town halls to protest the gub'mint wanting to euthanize my grandma.

Before this legislation gives you "chills," consider that "the guidelines...are roughly the same ones used by airline passengers." An unloaded, locked gun in checked baggage is permitted on commercial flights, provided you give notice to the airline and present it for inspection prior to checking the bag. There's probably been a gun located somewhere on most flights you've ever taken. Two if you connect in Texas.
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Edited by Schadenfriend at 09/17/09 7:16 AM Schadenfriend was starred Schadenfriend was unstarred

Adah
09/17/09

@Schadenfriend: As a military person who's checked an M-16 while flying on civilian aircraft, I can attest to this.
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The Lone Scout promoted this comment Adah was starred Adah was unstarred

The Lone Scout
09/17/09

@Schadenfriend: Another Gawker shooter here. Was raised in a home where my father racked his guns in plain view on the wall. Never touched them as a kid without his permission and supervision. Not out of fear or threats from him (which he didn't make). He just taught me gun safety and common sense, even before I attended my first NRA gun safety class. And as vigorously and consistently as my parents argued (tough days those were), he never went for a firearm to make his point.

As for Andrew writing that Americans "are not always the most stable of folk," his sensationalism, and his inaccurate reporting? It's not up there with his more unfortunately misguided posts of late, but still: Fail.

Andrew, please get your facts straight and leave it to us nonprofessional (unprofessional?) commenters to screw up.
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Edited by The Lone Scout at 09/17/09 9:38 AM The Lone Scout was starred The Lone Scout was unstarred

The Lone Scout
09/17/09

@Adah: Thank you for a) your service and b) bringing accuracy and clarity to this post.
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SagarikaLumos
09/17/09

@The Lone Scout: Yeah, this post was pretty ridiculous. I find people's misgivings and angry attitudes about guns really sad. They want to create laws to take my guns away, when (and this is a personal promise) my guns have never been used for crimes, and won't be.
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Swordfish
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
We're not allowed to take shampoo on an airplane but we can carry a loaded .357 Magnum on a train????
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FerroMancer
09/17/09

@Swordfish: Of course not! It specifically says "unloaded and locked guns". It's not talking about keeping a fully loaded pistol in a shoulder harness, ready to go; it's talking about keeping it unloaded, locked (as in, with a security device, like a key) so that it is kept AWAY from people.

I can understand why, at first glance, this might seem a radical step. But seriously, read it again. it's hardly the anarchy you make it out to be.
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skahammer
09/17/09

@FerroMancer: What percentage of guns carried on Amtrak trains under this law are going to be verifiably unloaded and locked, though? Not 100%, I'm quite sure. I'd need to hear a reliable estimate before I concluded that the language "unloaded and locked" in a bill was going to be enforced in a way that preserves safety.

And I'd also want to know: What are most people's feelings about being on trains, planes, or any form of mass transit with people carrying loaded, unlocked guns in violation of the law?

My own view is that the shampoo-on-planes standard is a pretty apt comparison here.
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Cynical Media Bitch
09/17/09

@skahammer: Since baggage on trains isn't generally inspected, the answer is somewhere between "all of them" and "none of them."
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Trai_Dep
09/17/09

In reply to Have Gun, Will Travel Could be Horrific Reality
Carrying this further (NRA are weak-kneed sisters), we need a Federal mandate that every airline passenger receive a grenade with their pair of headphones.
An aluminum tube at 30,000 feet filled with grenade-toting passengers is a polite aluminum tube flying at 30,000 feet.
Not a particularly quiet tube. Nor one likely to keep its structural integrity. But polite.

PS: Amtrak? Bazookas. Because why should the cows watching the train pass miss all the fun?
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Edited by Trai_Dep at 09/17/09 3:37 AM Trai_Dep was starred Trai_Dep was unstarred

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