On Wednesday, a man on his way to Charlotte was stopped at Norfolk International Airport after officials say a loaded handgun was spotted in his carry-on baggage.
They say the gun was discovered while an officer was staffing the checkpoint x-ray machine. A loaded .380 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun was loaded with five rounds and one chambered officials say.
TSA officials notified the Norfolk Airport Authority. The gun and the ammo were confiscated and the man was arrested.
He was then allowed to take his flight without the weapon.
I suppose this clown had a concealed carry permit, which made me wonder. How stupid does one have to be to "forget" they have a gun in their carry on bag when going through airport security? Even if they receive only a slap on the wrist, the hassle is significant, at the very least, brief arrest, temporary loss of the gun.
Yet, it happens fairly often. What I wondered is what percentage of permit holders travel by air. Not most, surely. Most people never travel by air, or once in a lifetime. That means that if ALL of them were frequent fliers we'd have an extremely high number of these incidents because so many of these guys are that stupid.