According this New York Post article, last Friday, on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Port Authority officials at New York’s La Guardia airport arrested a 40-year old man who was catching a Delta flight to Atlanta while packing a fully loaded 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun in his carry-on bag.
Security officials reported that the man said he “simply forgot” the weapon was in his bag.
Scary? Yes. Surprising? Probably not for the folks who work security at those airports. The article includes a description of some of the other stuff snagged at the security checkpoints at New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports, and at the Newark Liberty International Airport.
“The tonnage at Newark this year has included 12,302 flammable objects; and 43 travelers were stopped for trying to carry explosives.
At JFK, 1,328 tools were intercepted, and at La Guardia, 9,365 knives and blades were discovered in clothing and in carry-on bags.
Since January, 122 passengers at all three airports were stopped for carrying ammunition and gunpowder as they tried to board planes; 338 passengers were armed with bats, clubs and bludgeons; and travelers carried 1,602 knives and blades longer than three inches.”
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