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The Suffolk County man, of Halesite, was found with a loaded gun in his carry-on bag during a security screening at LaGuardia Airport on Thursday, Sept. 5, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said.
When the bag was identified by TSA as possibly containing a firearm, it was automatically diverted to a different conveyor belt for closer inspection. That’s when agents found the 9mm handgun loaded with nine bullets, including one in the chamber.
Police allowed the man to return the gun to his vehicle. He now faces “a stiff financial civil penalty,” the TSA said in a statement. Travelers caught carrying weapons onto a plane can be fined up to $15,000.
“Here it is less than one week from the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our nation and it should be obvious to all travelers – especially those in the New York region – that no weapons are permitted through our security checkpoints and onto a flight,” said Robert Duffy, TSA’s federal security director at LaGuardia.
“Travelers are responsible for the contents of their carry-on bags, to ensure that they have no prohibited or illegal items inside. It does not matter to us if someone has a concealed carry permit because regardless of that fact, it is never permissible to carry a firearm into the cabin of a plane.”
The incident marked the ninth time a firearm has been discovered during security screenings at the airport, according to the agency.
Passengers traveling with firearms can only bring them in checked baggage if they are unloaded and packed in a hard-sided locked case. Then the locked case should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.
Additional information on traveling with a firearm can be found on the TSA website.
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