TSA officers at Philadelphia International Airport stopped a Philadelphia man with this loaded handgun in his carry-on bag on March 22. (TSA photo)
PHILADELPHIA – Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Philadelphia International Airport prevented two Pennsylvania travelers from bringing their loaded handguns onto a flight on Wednesday, March 22.
In the early morning on Wednesday, TSA officers stopped a Hamburg, Pa., woman who was in possession of a .380 caliber handgun loaded with seven bullets among her carry-on items. She told officials that she forgot that she had her loaded gun with her. Then in the early evening a Philadelphia man also was caught with his 9 mm handgun that was loaded with 11 bullets, including one in the chamber. The firearm was in his carry-on bag.
In each instance, the guns were detected when the security checkpoint X-ray unit alerted on the guns, which were removed by the local police who confiscated the guns and issued criminal citations to the travelers. The cases were not related.
In addition to the citations by airport police, the travelers also face a stiff financial civil penalty. The penalty for carrying weapons recently increased to a maximum of $15,000.
“Our TSA team at Philadelphia continue to perform their jobs extremely well,” said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport. “There really is no excuse for bringing a firearm to a checkpoint because passengers cannot fly with them in the cabin of an aircraft. TSA has been in existence for more than 20 years and the ‘no guns rule’ has been in place long before TSA even existed, so this is nothing new. Responsible gun owners know that they cannot bring their guns through a security checkpoint.”
Passengers are only permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage. Firearms must be unloaded then packed in a hard-sided locked case. The locked case should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared. TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website.
TSA firearms caught at TSA checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport, 2017 to 2023
|
Year |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 (As of 3/23/23) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Guns caught at Philadelphia International Airport checkpoints |
35 |
25 |
20 |
26 |
39 |
44 |
9 |
Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality and gun owners have a duty to ensure they are not violating any local firearm laws. Additionally, contacting the respective airline could reveal any additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.
Bringing a gun to an airport checkpoint carries a federal civil penalty because TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint. Civil penalties for bringing a gun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because a concealed carry permit does not allow 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.
Last year, 6,542 firearms were caught at 262 out of 430 airport security checkpoints nationwide. Eighty-eight percent of those guns were loaded.
Unsure if an item should be packed in a carry-on bag, checked bag, either or neither? Download the free myTSA app, which has a handy “What can I bring?” feature that allows you to type in the item to find out if it can fly. Or ask on Twitter or Facebook Messenger at @AskTSA. Travelers may send a question by texting “Travel” to AskTSA (275-872).