COURTESY STL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
The TSA at Lambert International Airport has to tell a lot of people they can't fly the friendly skies with a gun.
Ninety-nine people tried to bring a gun onto a plane at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis last year, according to the TSA.
These were people packing heat as a carry-on, which, if you didn't know, is definitely illegal.
Statewide, TSA agents found 215 guns that travelers (or would-be travelers) were trying to bring onto planes as carry-ons.
Passengers can check unloaded and locked guns so long as they are in a hard-sided container, according to the TSA's website.
Individuals caught trying to carry on guns could receive a several thousand dollar fine as well as a criminal referral to local law enforcement, according to California-based attorney William Kroger's website.
Those 99 people caught with guns at a Lambert's TSA checkpoint ought to consider themselves lucky. If they would have gotten the gun onto the plane and then been caught with it, they would be looking a fine as high as $250,000 and up to a decade in prison. This assumes they weren't trying to use the gun to commit a hijacking or an act of terrorism, in which case they could face charges for, well, hijacking or terrorism.
TSA found 448 guns at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in 2022 — the most in the nation, followed by two airports in (no surprise) Texas: Dallas Fort Worth International (385) and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (298).
Overall, Missouri's rate of people trying to bring guns on planes was twice the national average.
Also in bringing-guns-onto-planes news, earlier this week someone tried to bring a rocket launcher onto a flight in San Antonio.
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