TSA: West Virginia man ‘forgot’ he had loaded gun in baby stroller at Palmer airport
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A West Virginia man told Transportation Safety Administration agents he forgot to remove a loaded handgun from his child’s baby stroller when he brought it through a security checkpoint Thursday at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity.
“Our TSA officers physically inspect strollers when they are too large to sit through the checkpoint X-ray unit,” said the airport’s TSA Federal Security Director Karen Keys-Turner.
During the inspection, TSA officials found a .380-caliber handgun loaded with six bullets in one of the stroller’s pockets. The man, who told agents he was from West Virginia but had a Houston, Pa., driver’s license, said he keeps his loaded gun in the stroller’s rear pocket when he, his girlfriend, his child and their dogs go for walks.
Westmoreland County Park Police confiscated the weapon and arrested the man on a weapons charge, TSA officials said.
“That’s a good catch on the part of our officers,” Keys-Turner said. “Just because an individual is traveling with a young child in a baby stroller doesn’t automatically mean they get a free pass at a checkpoint. It is also an example of why we don’t profile travelers.”
Travelers are allowed to transport firearms as checked baggage, but are not permitted to carry them into a plane cabin. Checked firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked and packed separately from ammunition.
“If you own a firearm, you should know where it is at all times,” Keys-Turner said. “Not knowing that you have a loaded gun with you is an accident waiting to happen.”
It is the fourth time TSA officers have discovered an un-checked handgun at the Unity airport this year.
In 2019, the last time the airport saw significant travel volume prior to the covid-19 pandemic, TSA officials confiscated only three guns the entire year.