Editorial: TSA checkpoint bill is overdue

State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, wanted to have the TSA Firearm Compliance Act introduced to lawmakers already.

That hasn’t happened. It has been held amid ongoing communication with state and federal law enforcement to make sure the proposal accomplishes the goals of cutting back on the number of guns going through Pennsylvania airports.

Those conversations need to move faster.

“Nearly every week, we see another case of a careless individual endangering the safety of fellow travelers, draining resources from security personnel and generally gumming up the works in Pennsylvania’s airports by bringing a gun through a security checkpoint in a carry-on bag. Frankly, my constituents are frustrated and so am I,” Frankel told TribLive.

Two hours after this story was posted to our website Monday, another story went up. Just as Frankel said, and just as history has taught us to expect, yet another gun was found at a security checkpoint. This time it was a Greensburg woman with a 9 mm handgun; it was loaded with six bullets and had another chambered.

While this can be painted as another battle in the gun rights versus gun control war, it shouldn’t be. It is just as important for gun owners’ safety that weapons not be taken through the airport in any way other than that detailed by law and spelled out by the TSA.

Bryan Hagerich, 39, of Somerset has been detained in Turks and Caicos after ammunition was discovered in a duffle bag he sometimes uses for hunting trips, according to WPXI.

There was no gun. This does not seem to be intentional. However, it has turned this Pennsylvania dad’s birthday vacation into a potential 12-year jail sentence.

Frankel’s proposal would tighten consequences for gun owners who bring a firearm through a TSA checkpoint, making it more likely they could lose concealed weapons permits.

This is not a penalty for lawful gun owners. This is not a hit at the right to bear arms.

It is, instead, like the response of a frustrated parent tired of threatening a timeout.