PHILADELPHIA — A North Carolina woman was arrested by police after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers detected a handgun inside her coat pocket at a Philadelphia International Airport security checkpoint on Tuesday, Dec. 21.
“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.”
When TSA officers spotted the gun in the security checkpoint X-ray machine, they alerted Philadelphia Police, who 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.
Passengers are permitted 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.
