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Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers detected a .380 caliber handgun loaded with four bullets in the man's carry-on bag at the airport checkpoint, TSA officials said.
Officers spotted the loaded red and black colored gun in the man’s carry-on bag and alerted the airport authority police, who arrived at the checkpoint, confiscated the gun, and cited the Bucks County man, authorities said.
"Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances," according to the official TSA website.
"This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. The complete list of civil penalties is posted online."
Additionally, if a traveler with a gun is a member of TSA PreCheck, that individual will lose their TSA PreCheck privileges.
Click here for a full list of civil penalties.
Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter, TSA officials said.
"Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided locked case, and packed separately from ammunition. Then the locked case should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared."
For details on how to properly travel with a firearm visit the official TSA website.
This is the second gun caught by TSA this year at the Lehigh Valley International Airport checkpoints, officials said.
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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