Cumberland County Man Arrested With Loaded Gun at Atlantic City Int’l Airport

Authorities say a man from Cumberland County was stopped by TSA officers at an Atlantic City International Airport checkpoint on Saturday when they detected a 9mm handgun loaded with 17 hollow point bullets in his carry-on bag.

TSA officials notified the New Jersey State Police, according to a press release, who confiscated the gun and arrested the man from Bridgeton.

The gun had previously been reported as stolen.

In addition to his arrest, the man now faces a stiff Federal financial penalty for bringing a gun to a security checkpoint.

The TSA says,

Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter to be transported in the belly of the plane. Guns are absolutely not permitted to be carried onto planes. Checked firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked, and packed separately from ammunition. TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality and travelers should check into firearm laws before they decide to travel with their guns. Travelers should also contact their airline as they may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.

A press release states nationwide, TSA officers detected 3,257 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year, although the total number of passengers screened at airport checkpoints across the country fell by 500 million compared to 2019 due to the pandemic. The result was that twice as many firearms per million passengers screened were detected at checkpoints in 2020 compared to 2019. Of the guns caught by TSA in 2020, about 83 percent were loaded.