2 guns found at airport checkpoints over the weekend

An employee at Pittsburgh International Airport lost her employee identification and a Munhall man was arrested when both tried to bring loaded handguns through airport security in separate incidents over the weekend, Transportation Security Administration officials said.

Dennis Briggs, 27, is charged with one count of carrying a firearm without a license, court records show.

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said security agents at the airport’s security checkpoint spotted the gun when Mr. Briggs got to the checkpoint Friday afternoon. The criminal complaint detailing the charges was not immediately available Monday afternoon.

The woman, who Ms. Farbstein did not identify, was stopped Saturday with a 9mm handgun. The gun, she said, was loaded with nine rounds plus one in the chamber. The woman works at Pittsburgh International Airport but is not employed by the airport authority.

They are the second and third firearms stopped by TSA agents at Pittsburgh International so far this year.

“It does not matter if you are coming through a checkpoint to catch a flight or to get to your job working in the airport, under no circumstances should someone be bringing a firearm to our security checkpoints,” said Karen Keys-Turner, TSA’s security director for Pittsburgh International.

The issue of travelers bringing guns to the security checkpoint — whether intentionally or because they forgot they were carrying them — had been a growing one in the years leading up to the pandemic.

In 2017, security agents stopped 32 guns. That rose to 35 in 2019.

Numbers fell amid the height of the pandemic in 2020, but officials have previously noted that the rate of passengers carrying firearms increased relative to the dramatic drop in air travel.

In Pittsburgh, the total number of passengers passing through the airport dropped from just under 9.8 million in 2019 to 3.6 million in 2020. With 21 guns stopped at Pittsburgh checkpoints in 2020, the rate of gun seizures went from about 3.5 per million passengers to nearly 6 per million passengers.

That trend held in 2021: about 6.3 million travelers passed through Pittsburgh International in 2021, data shows, and agents caught 32 guns — about 5 per million.

The problem became so bad that year that the U.S. Attorney for Pennsylvania’s Western District announced the office would begin requesting county sheriffs rescind concealed carry permits for travelers caught with guns at checkpoints.

Last year, agents stopped 26 guns as air travel rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels — just over 8.1 million passengers.

There is a way — the only way — to bring one’s properly licensed firearm during air travel. The guns must be put, unloaded, in a hardsided case that has a lock. Any ammunition should also go in the case in its original packaging. The gun is checked like any other checked baggage, although it does require a small bit of paperwork — about the size of a standard notecard.

Federal civil fines for bringing a gun to the checkpoint — which results in the entire security lane coming to a halt while police respond — can range from around $ 3,000 to nearly $14,000. Criminal charges generally come only at the county level when the person carrying the firearm doesn’t have a license to do so.