Woman Totes Handgun In Coat Pocket At Philadelphia Airport: TSA

A North Carolina woman was arrested after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers found a handgun inside her coat pocket at a Philadelphia International Airport security checkpoint, officials said.

TSA officers detected this handgun inside a woman’s coat pocket at Philadelphia International Airport on Dec. 21.
Photo Credit: *TSA*

Cecilia Levine

12/23/2021 8:37 a.m.

TSA officer spotted the gun in the security checkpoint X-ray machine and alerted police on Dec. 21, spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said.

Police confiscated the weapon and arrested the woman, who also faces a stiff federal financial civil penalty for carrying her gun to a TSA security checkpoint.

“It’s the busy holiday travel period and it’s no time to be toting a gun to the airport in your coat,” said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport.

“If you own a firearm, you really need to take an extra moment or two to think about where your gun is before you head to the airport. It should definitely not be slipped into your coat pocket.”

Passengers are allowed to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter.

Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked, and packed separately from ammunition. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website. Travelers should also contact their airline as they may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.

When an individual shows up at a checkpoint with a firearm, the checkpoint lane comes to a standstill until the police resolve the incident. Guns at checkpoints can delay travelers from getting to their gates.

Nationwide, TSA officers detected 3,257 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year, although the total number of passengers screened at airport checkpoints across the country fell by 500 million compared to 2019 due to the pandemic.

The result was that twice as many firearms per million passengers screened were detected at checkpoints in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2020, TSA caught approximately 10 firearms per million passengers as compared to about five firearms per million passengers in 2019. Of the guns caught by TSA in 2020, about 83 percent were loaded.

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