NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A New York man found with a loaded gun in his carry-on bag at JFK Airport says the firearm doesn't belong to him, the TSA said Thursday.
Security agents discovered the gun and five rounds in a gun magazine packed in the Sullivan County man's carry-on, TSA officials said.
The checkpoint X-ray unit triggered an alarm, requiring that the carry-on items be more closely inspected, which is when the firearm was removed.
After the discovery, the TSA said Port Authority Police were notified, and the weapon was confiscated. The man was then arrested on a weapons charge.
The man told officials that he had no idea how the gun and loaded magazine ended up inside his luggage and that the gun did not belong to him.
In addition to his arrest, the man could face a federal penalty as high as $15,000 for bringing a weapon to an airport checkpoint, the agency said in a news release.
It was the fourth firearm discovered by TSA agents at airport checkpoints this year. Seven guns were removed from carry-on bags at JFK Airport in 2022.
Last year, 6,542 firearms were caught at 262 of 430 airport security checkpoints nationwide. 88% of those guns were loaded.
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