4th gun in 12 days caught at Pittsburgh airport

Security agents at Pittsburgh International Airport on Tuesday caught the fourth traveler in 12 days trying to bring a firearm through the security checkpoint, officials said.

It’s the fifth gun caught at the security checkpoint so far this year, according to Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.

A Wexford man was going through security when a TSA officer spotted a 9mm handgun in the man’s carry-on bag, Farbstein said. The gun was loaded, she said.

Passengers can travel with firearms as long as they are packed correctly and checked as baggage, regardless of whether the traveler has a concealed carry permit.

“That’s no secret. It’s common sense,” said Karen Keys-Turner, TSA’s federal security director for the airport. “No guns on planes has been a policy since long before TSA was established 19 years ago, so it’s nothing new.”

Security officers stopped travelers with guns on Feb. 12, Feb. 8 and Feb. 4. Even if Allegheny County Police, who patrol the airport, do not file criminal charges, federal civil penalties can range from $4,100 to more than $13,000.

On Friday, police charged a Westmoreland County man with carrying a firearm without a license after he was stopped with a .38-caliber handgun in his carry-on bag.

Authorities caught 21 guns at the checkpoint last year, lower than previous years because of a drop in travel amid the covid-19 pandemic. Farbstein noted that 83% were loaded.

Before that, the number of guns caught at security had been creeping slightly upward for years: 32 in 2017, 34 in 2018 and 35 in 2019, according to TSA data.

The drop in guns in 2020 was not commensurate with the drop in travelers, Farbstein said. Twice as many firearms per 1 million travelers were caught last year compared to 2019, she said.