TSA warns about frequency of guns carried in Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) security checkpoints

AUSTIN, TX –Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) officers are involved concerning the frequency that they’re seeing vacationers carry handguns to safety checkpoints in Austin-Bergstrom Worldwide Airport (AUS). The temperature isn’t the one factor within the 100’s this yr, TSA officers have prevented the one hundredth gun from making it on airplanes in AUS. Most of these weapons are discovered to be loaded.

“As soon as once more our officers are on high of stopping firearms from coming into the safe space of the airport,” stated Gilbert Almaraz, TSA’s Federal Safety Director at AUS. “Carelessly touring with a loaded firearm is a public security concern, contemplating it may by accident be discharged throughout a search.”

 “The most typical excuse we hear is that somebody forgot that that they had their gun with them,” stated Gilbert Almaraz, TSA’s Federal Safety Director for AUS. “That’s no excuse. If you happen to personal a firearm, it’s essential know the place it’s always. It’s a part of being a accountable gun proprietor.”

The TSA crew at AUS Airport detected 110 weapons on the safety checkpoints in 2021, and in 2022 TSA officers at AUS Airport have stopped 100 weapons from making it onto airplanes.  

Passengers are permitted to journey with firearms in checked baggage if they’re correctly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter. Firearms have to be unloaded, positioned in a hard-sided locked case, and packed individually from ammunition. Then the locked case have to be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared. TSA has particulars on learn how to correctly journey with a firearm posted on its website.

TSA reserves the proper to concern a civil penalty to vacationers who carry weapons with them to a checkpoint. Civil penalties for bringing a handgun right into a checkpoint can stretch into 1000’s of {dollars}, relying on mitigating or aggravating circumstances. This is applicable to vacationers with or with out hid gun carry permits as a result of although a person could have a hid carry allow, it doesn’t permit for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. The entire checklist of civil penalties is posted online. If a traveler with a gun is a member of TSA PreCheck®, that particular person will lose their TSA PreCheck privileges.

“The penalties are stiff for carrying a gun to a checkpoint,” Almaraz stated. “You would face legal penalties on high of federal civil citations that may be extraordinarily expensive. My recommendation is to not make the error of bringing your gun to the checkpoint within the first place. We’re joyful to assist transport your firearm. All we ask is that you just pack it safely and correctly in your flight.”

TSA officers at AUS Airport prevented a traveler from bringing this loaded handgun onto a flight. It’s the one hundredth firearm discovered by TSA officers at AUS Airport.

Vacationers are liable for the contents of luggage and TSA recommends that vacationers undergo their carry-on and checked baggage earlier than they head to the airport to make sure that they don’t have any unlawful or prohibited gadgets inside. Carrying a gun to an airport checkpoint carries a stiff federal civil penalty that may run into the 1000’s of {dollars}. Even when somebody has a hid carry allow, it doesn’t permit for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane.

TSA firearms catches at Austin-Bergstrom Worldwide Airport checkpoints 2018 to 2022

Firearm possession legal guidelines fluctuate by state and locality and passengers ought to do their homework to ensure that they don’t seem to be violating any native firearm legal guidelines. Vacationers must also contact their airline as they might have further necessities for touring with firearms and ammunition.

Nationwide, TSA officers detected 5,972 weapons at airport safety checkpoints final yr. Eighty-six % of these weapons had been loaded.  

###