Last Wednesday my niece and her husband were leaving for a vacation on an early morning flight. Both are hard working, law abiding family people. When going through TSA screening at our local airport the husband’s loaded 9mm pistol was found in his carry on back pack. He had been to the family farm the previous Sunday target shooting and in the rush to leave forgot the pistol was still in the pack. Detained, missed flights, local police confiscated pistol, and charged but released. Fine could be up to $15,000 for bringing weapon to a TSA checkpoint. Average fine for first offense is $3900. Was on our local news.

Always check your bags before leaving for the airport. Careless handling of firearms is dangerous and cistly. No excuse.

I’m not sure how anyone competent to handle firearms makes such an enormous mistake, but I’m not going to be too outspoken in criticizing. We’ve all done dumb stuff and I imagine he feels bad enough. I hope things go as well for him as can be expected. Please let us know how this ends up.

That's a checklist that should never be forgotten. Take it home, unload it, put it away. Crossing a TSA checkpoint with a weapon is a Federal crime. He could lose his right to buy guns for the rest of his life, let alone have all of his guns confiscated.

A recent incident at my local airport was a man with a loaded .32 derringer.

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Heavily armed old man.

HUGE mistake! Guns and ammunition are not like any other type of product - that's a given! The first thing I do when returning from a Range trip is to clean my firearms. I always leave enough time for that and immediately after, the gun goes in the safe. If it's a rare occasion and I don't have enough time, I just lock it up and clean it later.

My dedicated Range bag does not get used for any other purpose other than to transport guns to and from a Range. It also contains many other accoutrements like a cleaning kit, binoculars, a first aid kit, paper targets, a few tools, extra glasses and muffs, a hat, etc. - that stuff is always in there. After using this Range bag for 20+ years now, I am sure a trained K-9 dog could smell it at 100 yards - lol.

I am NOT chastising him for his mistake but would bet he will never make it again! A gun is not a pair of smelly sneakers left in a gym bag. Leaving a loaded gun in an unattended back pack for the week is not a good idea either!!

^^^^ Agree.
Always have a range bag separate from your other backpacks, travel bags, etc. Leaving a loaded handgun in a bag around the house is also dangerous to children. My niece and her husband should know better. They have two children under 5 years old. Little kids are curious.Fortunately they didn’t get hold of it. A tough lesson to learn!

An innocent (no criminal intent) first time offender is usually just warned, or given a small fine.

Unfortunate, but sounds like no criminal intent. People have busy lives, mistakes happen.

Meanwhile, our Tammany Hall government treats "The Law" like so much litter box liner ... But this guy will be drawn and quartered. How about we treat him like a multi repeat violent offender and give him an award? Maybe a free apartment and a pension for life?

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Just Say No - To Social Media

I am guessing this guy is a carry rotation guy. This is why I keep the amount I own small. Carry gun ✅ home defense gun ✅ varmint rifle ✅ I always know where my carry gun is, because I only have one.

If you plan on having a rotation or guns that fill roles such as a backpack gun, then you must be extra vigilant. There is no excuse for not knowing you have a gun on you, that is carelessness.

All of that said, it is a shame we have more security at the TSA for citizens than we do for other purposes where this security is more necessary. I hope he gets off light, and learns from this experience.

Stuff happens, no one is perfect.

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Sure you did

Yea. People makes mistakes. But Dang.



His 6 year old could have found it.

In 2013 while embarking on our cruise ship my friends 16 year old son who was just ahead if me on the security line was abruptly stopped by a TASA agent. The agent said the kid could not bring on board the brass belt buckle with an embossed picture of two Colt 1860 black powder revolvers on it. Yes, it was a picture! I said to the TSA agent in total genuine amazement, "Sir, IT IS AN EMBOSSED 3 INCH PICTURE", surely you are joking..... He was not! The kid had to surrender the belt buckle in order to clear TSA inspection. How sad is that!? I guess it looks great on HIS belt now.

After seeing this actually happen, I can imagine just how freaked out they would get with a real firearm and live ammo.

Just after 9-11 happened I had to go into Manhattan on business. It was a 50 mile trip from LI where I used to live. I had a Lincoln Navigator at that time and had been shooting sporting clays two days before. No shooting items or empties were in the car however they set up a road block to keep anyone from entering below Houston Street - unless on official business. Well I proved to them I was on an official business trip but they had a K-9 dog sniff my vehicle and of course the dog picked up the gun powder smell from the few days before. They emptied out my entire vehicle onto the street, thoroughly inspected it and then finally after 45 minutes let me enter. And that was just for a dog's sniff!!

Ouch!
Hope everything works out with the least amount of discomfort.

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213th FBINA

VA TOM sad that it happened .took some courage to put on this forum for all to comment .I am sure that ALL of us have made mistakes . Hope it works out for the best.

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age is just a number

the worst part of being human... mistakes.. hope this all works out with minimal family impact

I'd be astonished if anyone who has handled guns for any length of time hasn't made an error in gun handling. Maybe minor, maybe major. We've all done it, most of us have learned from it.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

A few years back I remember a story about a gun being confiscated at an airport checkpoint. It was a toy gun a mom made for her kid's Woody cowboy doll from the movie "Toy Story", about an inch long...

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

I have a separate bag I keep my shooting stuff in. It never gets used for anything else. Hopefully that helps to avoid making that sort of mistake.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I rarely fly, and hope I never have to again.
When I have had to fly in the past I only use bags that are to be used for that purpose and that purpose ONLY. Nothing firearms related ever goes in those bags. If I need a day bag at my destination for carrying a gun I buy one after arrival, use it, and throw it away before going to the airport to come home.
I have flown with a handgun a couple of times and packed, locked, and declared it in accordance with TSA rules in a dedicated container. No problems.

If I shoot it, it gets cleaned and put away. It’s been that way for well over 40 years. Back in our camping days, after a afternoon of shooting, my gun got cleaned and secured, knowing I was going to shoot it again the next day. I carry Two guns most days. All others are locked up. If I have to put one away it gets locked up so knowone gets easy access. There was never a time that a gun was left in a range bag. Even in an emergency they are at least secured. No I’m not perfect but, I try to be careful with firearms.

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Two Handguns every day

That's why my range bag(s) - just free tool bags I got from Dewalt or Porter Cable - are nothing but dedicated range bags. They never go anywhere but the range outside the house. Guns NEVER go into any other bag. When I've gone to Florida, for example, I've gone to a range and shot while there. The range bag went along, all gun stuff in the range bag, and my suitcase with clothes etc, had NOTHING pertaining to guns in it, not even ammo or so much as a screwdriver.
A TSA gun encounter is the big booby prize, but guns and gun stuff appearing unexpectedly at the wrong place, wrong time can at the least make some people uncomfortable.
OP, I hope your niece and family come out of this as whole as possible.

Thanks for all the responses. Va.has a code section prohibiting carrying a weapon into an air terminal with exceptions for checked bags, law enforcement, etc. Class I misdemeanor and confiscation of firearm. (Class I misdemeanor in Va is the highest misdemeanor and has maximum fine of $1,000 or 12 months in jail or both. He was charged on a summons and released. The way I read regulations the TSA can also impose a Civil Fine.

A good man who made a stupid error that will cost him an attorney and any fines.

VaTom, your summary says it all:

All the rest is boring commentary.

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Come and take it!!

Hard-working, law-abiding, but shy in the smarts department.

This was pre-TSA…but I went to Dulles Airport outside of DC to pick up my (then) wife. This was when you could pass through the security checkpoint to meet passengers at the gate.

I went through security and the guy took my cigar cutter made from a .44Magnum case attached to my key chain. That it was obviously benign made no difference…that I had my police badge and credentials made no difference.

The officer said he’d save it for when I came back from the secured area. Of course he was no where to be found when I came back through…he didn’t put it where he should have…maybe he intended to keep it. I did get it back but didn’t think it should have gone the way it did.

Sorry to hear about the above mishap.

We all have laps from time to time.
When we receive ‘bought’ lessons,
we remember them much longer.

If he doesn’t get the charges dropped,
a good lawyer can start working on expungement.

Wishing them the best of luck.

///

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"IN GOD WE TRUST"

My nephew did the same thing three years ago at Hartsfield-Jackson airport here in Atlanta. He was arrested and released on bail but nothing has become of it. He still flies domestically and internationally. He wasn’t fined. Best of luck to your family.

Like others I am sorry for this predicament. However if there is any bright spot in all this it is that this lapse in judgement is now ingrained and unlikely to be repeated.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

A good friend and long time fellow LE firearms instructor realized upon unpacking aboard a cruise ship that he had his Model 36 in a side pocket of one of his bags. He had gone through the security check point but they missed it. He turned it in to security and, very long story short, he got it back after disembarking (with police involvement). Oh, he's a renowned oral surgeon and anything but "shy in the smarts department". It happens.
Ed

Sorry that happened to them, but definitely needs to be more careful and not so careless about his guns.

Second to that is, I'm surprised anyone would willingly fly with all the plane equipment issues lately!

I hope everything turns out okay and the issue is minimal in the end.

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Go ahead... make my day.

"Well, I hope this experience hasn't put any of you off flying. Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel." ~ C. Kent

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Better to have TSA find it than leave it laying around for a kid to find.

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Dick

I’m flying to Houston on business this morning, and seeing this thread last night prompted me to double check my carryon laptop backpack. I found my Kershaw Leek folder buried in one of the pockets. Wouldn’t have gotten detained over that probably, but I would have had to give it up at the gate and it’s a little sentimental.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

^ Enjoyed a local beach trip a couple of years ago, had my Swiss Army knife with us (retirement gift) and all was well. After our return over the next 7 months I never saw the knife. Umm wonder where that is. Well at that 7 months later we flew to Florida for a vaca. TSA found it for me in a little pocket in my toiletry bag. They kept it.

Almost 7,000 guns were “discovered” at airports in 2023. I’ll take a wild guess and say it’s better to be caught in Jackson Hole than JFK.

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Sure you did

On an alternate note, after a flight from NC to AZ last June I discovered a Bic lighter, a small folding knife, and a single .38 Special round in my bag, any of which could have gotten me arrested -- but none of which were found.

Never forget, a few years back TSA tested its own system, expecting a gun might get past screening 3% of the time. 97% of their testers made it through.

TSA is a pathetic, rights-trampling fake of a "security" system.

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Pisgah

Would you actually tolerate the kind of security procedures that would be necessary to detect the other 97%?

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Common sense isn't so common.

I remember in 1999 I was taking a trip and went through a TSA site and put my keys in the basket before going through the X-Ray machine. The attendant saw the 6" aluminum 1/4" round rod and said "that is a weapon!!!" I showed her my police ID. I did not really carry it as a weapon. I considered it as a tool primarily in the case I needed it to clean the barrel of my service revolver which I did not have with me. She was insistent that it was a weapon and she would have to confiscate it. We went back and forth and she called for a uniformed Police Officer on duty. He thought her argument was a bit silly and told her that as a Police Officer I could actually carry a revolver or have one in my luggage with the proper forms filled. If she thought that it was a weapon she had a form that she could sign that I was a police officer with a weapon. She did that and I was allowed to get on the plane as an (armed police officer). Coming back I did not run into any problem with my 6" x 1/4" WEAPON.

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Gun Safety is no accident.

In fact, I don't tolerate the procedures required to detect the 3%.

I haven't flown since 9/11.

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Just Say No - To Social Media

I still have subscriptions for two gun magazines as I am old school and enjoy reading off of paper. I don't even take these on flights as reading material. Just not worth the possible hassles or freak outs.

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Tom, I am sorry to hear this. We all make mistakes, but some are more costly than others. Ask me about the my three ex-wives I hope things work out well for the young Gentleman.
Can't be to careful out there.

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Always Stay Strong!

I don’t know offhand what my exact count is. I can tell you where everyone is at by using deductive reasoning. My m37 is in head of bed, my Commander is beside chair I’m setting in. The others are locked up, case closed.

Not as bad as "I didn't know it was loaded" after an AD, but that is a hard lesson learned :-(

After a day shooting, a good cleaning the firearm should be in the Gun Safe.

Even more so as he had little kids. If kids are in ,or likely to be in, your home or vehicle you darn sure better have those firearms locked away. Little kids and guns without direct adult supervision is a recipe for disaster.