Police mentioned they arrested a person on Thursday after TSA officers stopped him with a loaded gun in his carry-on bag at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport.
TSA officers detected the 9mm handgun loaded with 13 bullets, together with one within the chamber, within the traveler’s bag on Thanksgiving. The person, a Pennsylvania resident, is the third individual this month to be arrested on the airport after TSA discovered weapons of their baggage, authorities mentioned.
The firearm is the 14th gun to be detected by airport safety this yr, in keeping with the TSA. This yr to date is tied with 2018 for probably the most firearms found at Newark. Final yr, TSA officers discovered 5,972 weapons at airport checkpoints throughout the nation. 86% of them have been loaded, the company mentioned.
Thomas Carter, TSA federal safety director for New Jersey, mentioned that the person faces a “stiff federal monetary civil penalty that might run into 1000’s of {dollars}” along with his arrest.
“Getting caught with and arrested for carrying a loaded gun at our airport means this particular person had a reasonably dangerous Thanksgiving,” Carter mentioned. “Our TSA officers are on the job this busy vacation weekend in order that others can attain their locations safely and spend the vacation with their household and mates. Our crew is staying vigilant and centered on the mission to assist be sure that prohibited gadgets aren’t carried onto a flight.”
When touring with a firearm, the TSA advises passengers to stick to airline limitations, in addition to declare every firearm when checking baggage. In accordance with the company’s web site, firearms should be “unloaded and locked in a hard-side container and transported as checked baggage solely.” Reproduction and toy weapons can solely be transported via checked baggage, not stick with it. A hid carry allow doesn’t permit passengers to fly with a firearm.
Weapons are thought-about loaded when the passenger can entry each the firearm and its ammunition, even when they’re stored in separate, however accessible baggage. If a passenger is caught with an unloaded gun and accessible ammunition at an airport checkpoint, they are often charged with the identical civil penalty as bringing a loaded firearm. TSA PreCheck members who’re caught touring with loaded firearms additionally threat dropping their PreCheck privileges, the TSA mentioned.
The TSA additionally instructs passengers to “do their homework” and concentrate on native firearm possession legal guidelines, which range by state and locality.
