Courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration

Transportation Security Administration officers stopped this gun from getting past the security checkpoint at Tri-State Airport in Huntington on Monday, July 27, 2015.
Barboursville man caught with loaded gun in carry-on
Jul. 28, 2015 @ 10:52 AM

The Herald-Dispatch / 2015

HUNTINGTON — A Cabell County resident had a loaded handgun among his carry-on items at Huntington Tri-State Airport on Monday, July 27, when Transportation Security Administration officers stopped him as he tried to pass through the security checkpoint.

The TSA officer who was staffing the checkpoint X-ray machine detected the 9 mm caliber semi-automatic gun inside a carry-on bag the traveler had in his possession as it passed along the conveyor belt, according to a news release from the TSA. The gun was loaded with nine rounds.

TSA officers immediately contacted the Huntington Tri-State Airport Police Department, which polices the airport. Officers responded to the checkpoint and confiscated the gun, according to the release.

The man, a Barboursville resident, was originally ticketed to fly to Punta Gorda, Florida. Airport operations were not impacted by the incident.

Weapons — including firearms, firearm parts and ammunition — are not permitted in carry-on bags, according to the TSA. Travelers who bring firearms to the checkpoint are subject to possible criminal charges from law enforcement and civil penalties from TSA of up to $11,000.

There was no word early Tuesday whether the Barboursville resident would face either charges or a fine.

Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared. Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-side case, locked, and packed separately from ammunition. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure.

TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its webiste, http://www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/firearms-and-ammunition.

Wow - after 10 years they finally found something. Congratulations.

I wonder how many weapons get past TSA??

I am not that surprised to see someone in a tiny town in West Virginia on an Allegiant ticket to Florida left a gun in a carry on. Some people carry a gun with them wherever they go, and I am guessing that this may have been another case of someone forgetting to leave their gun at home. I am also guessing that people on some of those Allegiant flights are very infrequent flyers. I hope I am not stereotyping too much, but I am not surprised to see this happening in West Virginia.

Quoting Burkhard (Reply 1): Wow - after 10 years they finally found something. Congratulations.

They find about 2,000 guns per year. Most common cities are Atlanta and Dallas where they find a gun one out of 3 days on average.

Quoting MainRunway (Reply 2): I wonder how many weapons get past TSA??

The TSA does not post that number, but here is the list of what they found last week:



[Edited 2015-07-28 11:27:42]

[Edited 2015-07-28 11:29:17]

[Edited 2015-07-28 11:29:52]

In one of the longest running misdemeanor and bizarre trials in Del Norte County, California history this guy was found innocent of trying to get a gun past TSA.

http://www.triplicate.com/News/Local...s/Man-arrested-with-gun-at-airport

http://www.triplicate.com/News/Local...rre-twists-in-gun-at-airport-trial

Misdemeanor case ties up courtroom and still isn’t done

This trial has all the underpinnings of a bad joke — a jovial chiropractor, a weary judge and an attorney questioning himself on the witness stand.

But it’s taking an awful long time to get to the punch line.

Thursday was the second day of testimony in local chiropractor Sean Gray’s misdemeanor trial. He faces one count of carrying a concealed weapon for bringing a loaded handgun into the Del Norte County Airport on May 28.

“In my wildest dreams I never thought this case would go into next week,” Del Norte Superior Court Judge William Follett said when apologizing to one of the jurors who had to change her travel plans to come back to court Monday.

Jurors must discern whether Gray, 48, knowingly had the firearm in his carry-on luggage at the time airport security screeners found it in his backpack.

Soo many people have conceal and carry now people rushing to the airport prob one of most rushed a person gets is going to the airport is the reason more and more guns are being found by TSA nothing ground breaking with TSA finding more. So when your head line reads another fool maybe it should read a person in a rush forgets to take his gun out of his man purse.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 5): So when your head line reads another fool maybe it should read a person in a rush forgets to take his gun out of his man purse.

Forgetting you are carrying a gun sounds pretty definitively foolish to me.

Quoting MainRunway (Reply 2): I wonder how many weapons get past TSA??

My uncle knows a guy whose job is to test how easy it is to get weapons through. The guy said in a certain airport he's gotten one through 9 out of 10 times. Once he gets it through he goes right to the state police and shows them his credentials and explains how he got it through. Says the cops eyes get huge every time.
Pat

Quoting delimit (Reply 6): Quoting ripcordd (Reply 5): So when your head line reads another fool maybe it should read a person in a rush forgets to take his gun out of his man purse. Forgetting you are carrying a gun sounds pretty definitively foolish to me.

It is definitely foolish and gets you arrested. Plenty of people have accidentally brought guns that were caught by security in Atlanta. It is a serious offense. While some think that they can surrender the gun and get on their way, the reality is gat you get arrested and taken to jail cell. Some foolish people think that they can still make their flight.

So we know how many didn't get through. I'd bet a lot more do get through. And obviously, they aren't terrorists.

That said I do find it amusing they had to point out it was a semi-automatic handgun. Well duh, short of it being a revolver, just about all handguns are semiautomatic.

Quoting Roseflyer (Reply 3): I am not that surprised to see someone in a tiny town in West Virginia on an Allegiant ticket to Florida left a gun in a carry on. Some people carry a gun with them wherever they go, and I am guessing that this may have been another case of someone forgetting to leave their gun at home. I am also guessing that people on some of those Allegiant flights are very infrequent flyers. I hope I am not stereotyping too much, but I am not surprised to see this happening in West Virginia.

   When I saw that the destination was Punta Gorda, I knew it was an Allegiant infrequent flyer. I'm still at a loss as to how anyone could think it appropriate to try to take a gun through security in a post-9/11 world.

Quoting delimit (Reply 6): Forgetting you are carrying a gun sounds pretty definitively foolish to me.

Exactly. You wonder where else it is forgotten, left unsecured, or otherwise misplaced.

The thing is, when they find guns in suitcases, I doubt they were really forgotten. Do people leave guns in their luggage normally at home? I'd assume not. Guns don't teleport into bags - someone has to put them there.

Just remove their right to carry. People will stop to "forget" their guns.

If you can't remember where your gun is, you shouldn't own a gun.

Quoting DiamondFlyer (Reply 13): Quoting threeifbyair (Reply 11): The thing is, when they find guns in suitcases, I doubt they were really forgotten. Do people leave guns in their luggage normally at home? I'd assume not. Guns don't teleport into bags - someone has to put them there. Depends on what you use the bag for. It's not unheard of to use the same bag you use as a range bag as a carry on. Granted, probably not a wise idea, but it wouldn't be the first time it's done. -DiamondFlyer

The point is you have to have save routines with guns.

Quoting delimit (Reply 14): If you can't remember where your gun is, you shouldn't own a gun.

  

Quoting threeifbyair (Reply 11): Exactly. You wonder where else it is forgotten, left unsecured, or otherwise misplaced. The thing is, when they find guns in suitcases, I doubt they were really forgotten. Do people leave guns in their luggage normally at home? I'd assume not. Guns don't teleport into bags - someone has to put them there.

IT's usually not like a roller bag. It is usually like a backpack or messenger bag that the person always has with them.

Quoting MainRunway (Reply 2): I wonder how many weapons get past TSA??

Since the TSA recently failed 95% of their own tests, I'd be afraid to guess...

Quoting Roseflyer (Reply 3): The TSA does not post that number, but here is the list of what they found last week:

I'm not surprised at the thing of people forgetting or intentionally trying to sneak guns through checkpoints. It's that weird thing the US has with guns.

What I'm worried about in that image is just how many Ys were in the column "Had a round chambered" or "Loaded"

Now that's just bad gun safety. O_O What happens if a safety is disabled/not there and some loose keys or clothing pulls the trigger?

For these people carrying their gun with them is like putting on underwear they always have it so it's not foolish. Also any gun should be consider loaded so guns that are unloaded vs loaded that the tsa find is mute cause if you have a conceal n carry your taking a loaded gun with you everywhere vs unloaded. 99.9% of the people do not try sneaking any guns through they just forget.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 19): For these people carrying their gun with them is like putting on underwear they always have it so it's not foolish.

They also drive every day. They are less casual with their car. Underwear is not a weapon. If you can't differentiate between a pair of boxers and a firearm then perhaps a firearm isn't for you.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 19): Also any gun should be consider loaded so guns that are unloaded vs loaded that the tsa find is mute cause if you have a conceal n carry your taking a loaded gun with you everywhere vs unloaded.

Gun safety 101 disagrees with you. Concealed carry doesn't mean you get to break the law.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 19): 99.9% of the people do not try sneaking any guns through they just forget.

Then they shouldn't be carrying a gun.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 19): For these people carrying their gun with them is like putting on underwear they always have it so it's not foolish.

If you are not aware were your gun is at all times you should not carry one.
GUNS ARE NOT UNDERWEAR. As stupid a comparison as one can make.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 19): Also any gun should be consider loaded so guns that are unloaded vs loaded that the tsa find is mute cause if you have a conceal n carry your taking a loaded gun with you everywhere vs unloaded. 99.9% of the people do not try sneaking any guns through they just forget.

Yes guns should always considered loaded, but that is no reason to have them loaded and far less to have a round chambered. Their is never a reason to have a round chambered when a gun is stored.
If you transport your semiautomatic handgun, you remove the magazine, unchamber the chambered round and add it to the magazine that you do not place in the gun but separate from it.
Everything else is bad practice and highly accident prone.

Were I was shooting you always arrived with a unloaded gun. You loaded the gun on your stand and you unloaded your gun before you left your stand. Not following those rules got you banned.
To keep to certain handling of the gun whenever a status change occurs makes you aware of your gun.

So if you thing your gun compares to your underwear, you should do a course in gun safety. or keep your hands of guns.

[Edited 2015-07-29 06:49:17]

Quoting Burkhard (Reply 1): Wow - after 10 years they finally found something. Congratulations.

Quoting MainRunway (Reply 2): I wonder how many weapons get past TSA??

Answer: A hell of a lot!

Best way to insure your checked luggage arrives with you and on time? Put a gun in it - legally. Advise the check in folks you have a properly packed weapon in your checked luggage. You can be sure that bag will be checked, rechecked, and not lost. But smuggling past one of the security bozos? Hard to tell who is dumber in that situation. Our ever vigilant moderators may or may not allow my pithy words of honesty to post...

You don't ask a criminal to wait till you load and chamber a round before you get to respond that is the conceal n carry laws we have. To these people carrying a gun to everyone else is like not leaving home without cellphone.keys.wallet putting on underwear that's all it's automatic and when I'm out I always have them on me. Just cause you forget it's on you does not mean they are unsafe people but I can say if their life was threaten it would be a muscle memory reflex and they would grab that gun without even thinking they had it on them.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 23): You don't ask a criminal to wait till you load and chamber a round before you get to respond that is the conceal n carry laws we have.

The gun wasn't on them, it was in carry-on. It shouldn't have been loaded. I'd be slightly more sympathetic if it was holstered; but not much so, as I expect people carrying firearms to do so responsibly, and that means obeying the law.

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 23): Just cause you forget it's on you does not mean they are unsafe people but I can say if their life was threaten it would be a muscle memory reflex and they would grab that gun without even thinking they had it on them.

Muscle memory is something that is done so often it becomes reflexive. What you are describing is not muscle memory or reflex.

Leaving a loaded weapon in a bag that is outside your control is unsafe, full stop. You shouldn't be carrying a firearm if you can't be responsible for its safety.

If we use the drugs confiscation statistics, where at any checkpoint only 10% of the merchandise that go thru it get caught this means that if they got 41 guns last week that means that 369 guns went thru security unnoticed.

Could I just say that, there is such a difference between the way we view guns in Europe and the way most parts of the USA sees it.
Nobody in his/her right mind would carry a weapon on their person in Europe, whereas it seems common practice in USA.
USA is a great country, pls join the rest of the world in a civilised attitude towards guns, before even more mayhem happens.

Quoting georgiaame (Reply 22): Quoting MainRunway (Reply 2):I wonder how many weapons get past TSA?? Answer: A hell of a lot!

Source?

Quoting ZaphodHarkonnen (Reply 18): It's that weird thing the US has with guns.

But I guess he was one of the good guys who, as we all know, are (as long as they have a gun) the only thing saving us from the bad guys, with guns.   

Quoting ripcordd (Reply 19): 99.9% of the people do not try sneaking any guns through they just forget.

Unless their name is Ahmed, I guess?