Local woman caught with loaded handgun at Rochester Airport

Local Press Release
Monday, September 27, 2021
This loaded handgun was detected in a passenger’s carry-on bag at Frederick Douglass-Greater Rochester International Airport on Saturday. (TSA photo)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. –  A local woman was prevented from bringing her handgun onto her flight when the weapon was detected at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoint at Frederick Douglass-Greater Rochester International Airport on Saturday, September 25. The .380 caliber handgun was loaded with six bullets.

Security officials detected the gun in the woman’s carry-on bag. The woman, a resident of Rochester, told authorities that she uses the bag for work and forgot that she had the it in her bag. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department was alerted, responded to the checkpoint and confiscated the weapon.

“The team at the airport in Rochester is to be commended for their good work in detecting this firearm,” said Bart R. Johnson, TSA Federal Security Director for Upstate New York. “If you own a firearm, you should know where it is at all times. Forgetting that you have a loaded gun with you is no excuse. This individual now faces a stiff federal financial civil penalty.”

Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter. Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked, and packed separately from ammunition. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website. Travelers should also contact their airline as they may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.

TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint. Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. The complete list of civil penalties is posted online. If a traveler with a gun is a member of TSA PreCheck®, that individual will lose their TSA PreCheck privileges.

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.

TSA Firearms Caught at Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport checkpoints, 2017 to 2021

Year

2017

2018

2019

2020*

2021*

Guns caught

 3

6

 5

 1

2

*Significantly fewer passengers than previous years due to the pandemic.

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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