A Cedar Rapids, Iowa, man was stopped by Transportation Security Administration officers at the Eastern Iowa Airport on June 15, when they detected a semi-automatic 9 mm handgun with a folding 16-inch barrel in his carry-on bag. It was not loaded, however the man also had a magazine with 25 bullets in it along with his gun.
TSA officials notified the local police, who responded to the checkpoint and confiscated the gun.
When an individual shows up at a checkpoint with a firearm, the checkpoint lane comes to a standstill until the police resolve the incident. Guns at checkpoints can delay travelers from getting to their gates.
“Our TSA officers remain vigilant even though there is also a large focus on the pandemic,” said John Bright, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Iowa. “There is a right way and a wrong way to travel with a firearm. The wrong way is to bring it to the passenger screening checkpoint. The right way is to make sure it is unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case and locked. Then it should be taken to the airline check-in counter so that it can be declared to the airline to make sure it gets transported as checked baggage on the plane, never the cabin of the plane.”
