Editorial: It’s beyond time to crack down on passengers bringing guns to airport checkpoints
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Cause and effect follow each other naturally.
Touch a hot stove and get a burn. Skip homework and get detention. Drive too fast and get a ticket.
It isn’t hard to understand. It’s how we raise children and train pets.
When it becomes a problem is when the cause has no enforced effect. Consequences are important.
For some time, there has been no real sting for those who break one federal rule. Maybe that’s why it keeps being broken.
Across the country and in Western Pennsylvania, there has been a regular issue at airports. Despite an entire security setup dedicated to keeping weapons from being brought onto airplanes, people just keep trying to board wearing guns or stowing them in carry-on luggage.
There is a process for legally bringing a firearm on a plane. When the rules are broken, guns can be confiscated. Charges can be pressed if specific conditions are met.
And concealed-carry permits can be revoked.
That last penalty is the least utilized. Despite a commitment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania articulated in October 2021, county sheriffs say they were never asked to follow through on reviewing permits for violators.
In 2021, 32 guns were confiscated at Pittsburgh International Airport. As of Oct. 1, that many have been confiscated this year — with three months left on the calendar. The problem is not getting better.
Maybe it will now. Pennsylvania Sheriffs Association President John Zechman said all 67 counties “have agreed to provide permit holders with information about safe firearm transport and to review referrals from federal authorities for possible revocation of the offender’s concealed carry permit.”
It would seem an obvious step. Pennsylvania law gives sheriffs that authority. One reason it might not have happened to date is that same law is not overly specific. It doesn’t spell out taking a weapon into an airport as a reason to revoke or deny. It does, however, open the door with the phrase “good cause.”
This seems like an easy fix on several fronts.
First, the U.S. Attorney’s office should have been implementing these requests all along but definitely for the last two years since outlining it would do just that. Second, county sheriffs need to follow through and examine these gun owners’ permits to see whether their permit should be revoked.
And lastly, lawmakers should look at this data and realize state legislation needs to be adjusted to better address the actual and potential problems.
This isn’t about additional or stricter gun laws. It’s about giving law enforcement the best way to look at the cause and have the right effect.