A Florida man has been arrested for the second time this month for trying to get a gun through airport security in upstate New York.
Transportation Safety Administration officials say the unidentified man was arrested at Syracuse Hancock International Airport on Thursday after he was caught at a checkpoint with a .32-caliber handgun loaded with seven bullets in his carry-on bag. TSA says the man was also in possession of a box with 41 more bullets in it.
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Officials say this is the second time in three weeks he was found with a loaded gun at an airport checkpoint.
TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein tweeted a picture of the gun and bullets. She said the same man was caught three weeks ago with a loaded 9 mm handgun at the airport in Ithaca, also in upstate New York.
In both incidents, officials said the man claimed he didn’t know he had a loaded gun with him.
“It’s absolutely inexcusable for someone to forget that they are bringing a loaded gun to an airport 21 days after being caught making the identical mistake at the Ithaca Airport,” Bart Johnson, TSA’s federal security director for Upstate New York, told WRGB-TV in Albany. “Bringing a loaded handgun to a checkpoint that is congested with holiday travelers, families and children is both careless and reckless. You can be assured that in addition to the arrest, he will face thousands of dollars in a civil penalty."
TSA did not release the man’s name, age or where in Florida he lives.