Clinton claimed that Sanders “voted to let guns go onto the Amtrak,” and that “he voted for immunity [for] gun makers and sellers.” She added, “There is no other industry in America that was given the total pass that the gun makers and dealers were.”
Sanders did vote to allow guns on Amtrak trains, but in checked baggage only. And separate legislation he voted for didn’t give a “total pass” to gun makers and dealers from civil lawsuits.
On Sept. 16, 2009, Sanders voted in favor of an amendment to a transportation appropriations bill that restored the right of Amtrak passengers to transport guns in checked baggage. Doing so had been prohibited since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The amendment allowed passengers traveling to and from Amtrak stations with checked baggage service to place an unloaded firearm in a checked bag if the passenger provided advance notice that he or she would be traveling with a firearm and if that firearm was stored in a locked, hard-sided container to which only the passenger had the key or combination. The amendment also said passengers would be allowed to place ammunition for a small firearm inside the checked bag if the ammunition was stored securely in a box made of fiber, wood or metal, or other packaging used to transport small amounts of ammunition.
But Amtrak does not allow travelers to have firearms or ammunition physically on them while traveling or in their carry-on baggage. Amtrak also says that only its employees have access to the area of the train where checked bags are stored (see page 4 of a 2010 document explaining the Amtrak Checked Firearms Program).
Sanders also voted in favor of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005, which provided some protections for licensed manufacturers, dealers, sellers of firearms or ammunition, and trade associations from civil lawsuits resulting from the misuse of firearms or ammunition. But gun makers and dealers did not receive a “total pass,” as Clinton claimed.
As the Congressional Research Service pointed out in a 2012 report, the legislation included six exceptions where civil suits could still be brought, including cases in which a firearm seller acted with negligence, cases involving the transfer of a firearm with the knowledge that it would be used to commit a crime, and cases in which manufacturers and sellers marketed or sold a firearm in violation of state or federal law.
We should note that Sanders now says that he would support legislation that has been proposed that would take away the protections for licensed firearm manufacturers and dealers that were included in the 2005 bill he supported.