The Transportation Security Administration is once again reminding people who are going through airport security that they cannot take a firearm through.
A gun has been stopped at Pittsburgh International Airport over the past three straight days.
32-year-old Nicholas Bello of Mt. Lebanon man was caught with a .380 caliber gun on Wednesday he faces firearm charges after he was carrying without a license.
, A .380 on a Massachusetts man, 35-year-old Luis Arce, was stopped on Thursday. He also didn’t have a license.
and an Ohio man was caught with a .38 caliber pistol in his carry-on bag Friday.
Bello was released from custody and charges were filed via summons. Arce was still in Allegheny County Jail as of Thursday awaiting a preliminary arraignment.
All three men face thousands of dollars in federal fines.
That brings the total to 43 guns so far in 2023. The previous record was 35 in 2019.
14 people have faced firearm charges so far this year for bringing guns to Pittsburgh International Airport.
“Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only in checked baggage if they are unloaded and packed in a hard-sided locked case,” the TSA said in a statement. “Then the locked case should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.
TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website.”
“At this point, it’s an epidemic in terms of the frequency in which we are seeing travelers bringing guns to our checkpoint,” said Karen Keys-Turner, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport. “When someone purchases an online ticket, they are required to acknowledge that they have read a screen, which states guns are prohibited. We have large signs in the terminal that indicate no guns are permitted. And there is a tablet at the checkpoint that offers a final warning that guns are not permitted. It is absolutely irresponsible of these gun-toting individuals to ignore the warnings over and over again. The result in these cases was that the two individuals on Wednesday and Thursday who did not have proper firearm permits were each arrested by the police. The man who was caught today was not arrested by police because he had the proper permit. However, all three face a stiff federal financial civil penalty that will cost them thousands of dollars.”