Whoa!  This came to a head in my old hometown:

Amtrak passengers subdue armed man near Big Sandy

By The Associated Press

BIG SANDY – Passengers aboard an Amtrak train apparently took matters into their own hands Sunday when a man wielding a plastic knife threatened to kill them while screaming profanities against America.

“It could have been a lot worse. The passengers did a fantastic job of restraining him,” said Big Sandy Police Chief Ronnie Norman.

According to arrest reports, passengers already had Gerardo Damien Bedia, 21, restrained in an upstairs compartment when Big Sandy Police Officer William Lakes arrived on the scene just before 8 p.m. Sunday.

It sounds like they called out the whole department for this one (no, I’m not being sarcastic or facetious).  For those that haven’t been to Big Sandy, it’s a very small town of about 1500 (the school was barely big enough to be 2A when I was there and there were only 30 people in my graduating class) .  Not much happens in Big Sandy, so I suppose this will give them something to talk about for quite a while.

Via Instapundit.

Update: It might seem strange to some people that a plastic knife could be that dangerous.  Most people envision some kind of pathetic thing like you’d get at a picnic.  Actually, there are some pretty dangerous plastic knives available today.