More passengers were caught carrying guns at NC airport checkpoints last year
The number of guns found at airport checkpoints in North Carolina rose last year, led by a 17% increase at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday.
TSA officers found 89 guns among passengers at RDU, up from 76 the year before. At Charlotte Douglas, which handles over three times as many passengers as RDU, the TSA found 117 firearms, down from 124 a year earlier.
Nearly all of the guns found last year were loaded, the TSA said.
When TSA agents spot a gun in an X-ray image, they stop the screening process and call airport police. Officers remove the bag from the X-ray machine, confiscate the weapon and determine whether to press charges. Options range from a civil citation to a felony charge, depending on the circumstances.
The TSA also fines passengers caught with a firearm at a checkpoint as much as $15,000 and revokes their TSA PreCheck eligibility for at least five years.
Nationwide, the TSA says it screened over 904 million passengers last year and intercepted 6,678 firearms, down about 1% from a year earlier. The agency found about 7.4 guns for every 1 million people it screened.
North Carolina passengers are more likely to carry firearms. The 250 guns found at the state’s 10 commercial airports amounts to 9.7 for every 1 million passengers screened, down from a rate of 10.3 per million the year before.
The number of firearms found in North Carolina was up about 5% last year.
You cannot bring a firearm into the cabin of an airplane, even if you have a concealed carry permit.
But it is possible to fly with a firearm, as long as it is unloaded and in a locked, hard-sided container as checked baggage. Passengers must let the airline know about the firearm or ammunition when checking the bag at the ticket counter.
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For more information, go to www.tsa.gov/travel/transporting-firearms-and-ammunition. If you’re unsure about what other items might or might not be allowed through an airport security checkpoint, go to TSA.gov and click on “What Can I Bring?” in the top right corner.
The TSA credits a public awareness campaign with reducing the number of firearms found at checkpoints nationwide, even as more people traveled by air. The agency encourages people to look in their bags for guns before packing and to review the rules before coming to the airport.
“There are clear and simple rules for flying with firearms,” Gregory Hawko, the TSA’s federal security director for Charlotte Douglas, said in a written statement. “And we want to make sure passengers understand them to avoid delays, fines, and potential legal consequences.”
