Senate legislation to let Amtrak train passengers put guns in checked baggage would undermine safety, two House lawmakers said today.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, and Peter King of New York, the panel's senior Republican, protested the gun proposal in a letter to colleagues who will play important roles in deciding whether the plan is attached to a transportation spending measure.

King and Thompson said they are "deeply troubled that the Senate approved an amendment that endangers rail security." They said it would overturn firearms restrictions Amtrak adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and 2004 Madrid train bombings.

The Senate approved a transportation spending measure last month that included the gun provision; the House passed a different version. Leaders of both houses will be meeting to reconcile the differences.

Amtrak doesn't have many trains that can take checked baggage, and those that do keep the items in cars that were designed without security in mind, King and Thompson wrote.

Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who sponsored the provision, has said hunters can't use Amtrak because there is no way to take guns along.

Thompson and King sent their letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, as well as Representatives Jerry Lewis of California, the panel's senior Republican, John Olver, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the transportation appropriations subcommittee, and Tom Latham of Iowa, the subcommittee's ranking Republican.