TSA Discovers Third Gun This Year at N.Y. Stewart Intl. Airport

STEWART AIRPORT – A Transportation Security Administration officer prevented a man from carrying his loaded handgun onto a flight in New York Stewart International Airport on Wednesday, August 24.

The .357 revolver was loaded with five bullets.

The officer spotted the gun on the checkpoint X-ray machine’s monitor as the man’s belongings entered the unit and immediately alerted the State Police.

The man told officials he forgot that he had the gun with him. He was allowed to leave the airport with the gun.

The man also faces a federal civil penalty for bringing the weapon to an airport security checkpoint.

This was the third gun that the TSA team has stopped at the Stewart security checkpoint this year.

“Claiming that you did not know that you had a loaded gun with you is no excuse,” said Robert Duffy, TSA’s federal security director for the airport. “If you own a firearm, you need to know where it is at all times.”

Guns can be transported on a flight if they are unloaded, packed in a locked, hard-sided case and declared to the airline. The airline will be sure that the gun travels with checked baggage in the belly of the plane, never in the cabin of the plane. Replica firearms are also prohibited in carry-on luggage and also must be transported in checked luggage.

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