What Could Go Wrong? Amtrak to Allow Guns on Trains

While TSA is turning the airport into a police state, Amtrak is going in the opposite direction:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Amtrak says it will allow passengers to bring guns on most trains, matching air travel rules allowing unloaded firearms to be stored in locked luggage bins.

The new policy, urged by gun rights advocates and mandated by Congress, will go into effect Dec. 15, the Sacramento (Calif.) Bee reported Tuesday.

Federal Homeland Security officials said as long as security protocols are enforced guns on trains are allowable.

"It's deemed safe and appropriate," federal Transportation Security Administration spokesman Nico Melendez said. "If people follow the rules, it's pretty simple."

Gun owners must let Amtrak know of their intention to bring guns aboard trains that have checked baggage service 24 hours in advance.

Unloaded firearms must be in hard-sided cases and will be kept in train lockers, Amtrak says.

Depending on the security that they're going to have guarding the lockboxes, this could be ok, or it could go very wrong. There is always the chance that the security can be compromised. This would blow up in their faces, if terrorists use this to their advantage.

Will General Motors, Chrysler Follow Amtrak's Lead of Government Corporate Takeovers?

As General Motors goes into bankruptcy and the government becomes 60% owner, parallels are being brought up between Amtrak and GM:

Some analysts say the federal government's effort to prop up the nation's largest auto manufacturer is eerily similar to a 40-year effort to revive the nation's ailing railroad system. Billions of taxpayer dollars later, Amtrak still needs the government to survive -- and critics say General Motors appears to be headed down the same track.

"I see no hope whatsoever for the situation," said Wendell Cox, a policy consultant who sat on the government-appointed Amtrak Reform Council a decade ago and draws parallels to the GM intervention today.

Amtrak could be a winner in America today, if the government wasn't doing its usual bang-up job of running things.

Why are we allowing Obama and the government to be the new de facto CEO of GM? Obama hasn't ever been an executive of any businesses, and the government has a horrible track record with such takeovers?