PITTSBURGH — Transportation Security Administration officers stopped a man carrying a .380-caliber handgun loaded with eight bullets at the checkpoint at Pittsburgh International Airport on Thursday morning.
One of the bullets was in the chamber.
The man, who wasn’t identified, was stopped and Allegheny County Police were notified. They took the gun and questioned the man, who is from Hadley, Mercer County.
“Once again we’ve caught a traveler who claimed he forgot that he had his loaded gun with him and did not pack his gun properly for transporting it on his flight,” said Karen Keys-Turner, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport.
“I want to remind travelers that there may be a pandemic, but our officers remain vigilant about preventing weapons that pose a security threat from getting onto flights. If you bring a gun to our checkpoint, you will face a stiff federal financial civil penalty.”
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In 2020, TSA agents at Pittsburgh International seized 21 guns. So far this year, they have caught 13.
Nationwide, TSA officers detected 3,257 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year, although the total number of passengers screened at airport checkpoints across the country fell by 500 million compared to 2019 due to the pandemic.
The result was that twice as many firearms per million passengers screened were detected at checkpoints in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2020, TSA caught approximately 10 firearms per million passengers as compared to about five firearms per million passengers in 2019.
Of the guns caught by TSA in 2020, about 83 percent were loaded.
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