NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A New Jersey man was arrested on Thursday after TSA officers found a loaded handgun in his bag at a Newark Liberty International Airport checkpoint.
Officers detected the unloaded .22 caliber antique handgun among the man's carry-on items as they entered the checkpoint X-ray machine at Terminal C, TSA officials said.
Port Authority police were alerted and came to the Terminal C checkpoint, where they confiscated the firearm and arrested the man, who was a resident of Verona. The name of the arrested man has not been disclosed.
“Travelers need to pay more attention to the items that they have inside their carry-on bags,” Thomas Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey, said in a statement. “Travelers are responsible for the contents of their carry-on bags. In addition, responsible gun owners know where their firearms are at all times and they know not to bring them to a security checkpoint. Bringing guns to checkpoints is a serious security violation.”
In addition to his arrest, the suspect faces a substantial federal civil penalty for bringing a gun to a security checkpoint. The fine for bringing a weapon to a TSA checkpoint can be as much as $15,000.