The Big K Morning Show
TSA Gun Protocols At Pittsburgh International
For choosing us, Larry Richard, with thank her. Man, Paul Rasmussen will continue to bring you updates from the devastation of Hurricane Helene and what's happened down south, unimaginable two and a half feet of rain in some parts of the Carolinas, Tennessee, Georgia, 10 states overall. And over 2 million people without power, in some cases, not coming back anytime soon. Larry, right now our rain here extends from pretty much across Washington County, all of Allegheny County, northern Westmoreland County, kind of slowly creeping northward. And yes, this is the remnants, by the way, of that storm with, it looks like another storm brewing in the Atlantic and we'll keep you posted. Paul, you outright an editorial about the TSA and people that bring guns to the airport. Yeah. And joining us is Lisa Farbstein, who is spokesperson, strategic communications, public affairs for the TSA. Lisa, good morning. Good morning. So, we're on track here, 33, I guess, checkpoint firearms catches so far as of last week. Correct? That's correct. That's as of yesterday now. Oh, okay, as of yesterday, walk us through what happened. So everybody's in line to get checked and when there is a discovery of a firearm at TSA, what happens? So let's just say that the firearm is in somebody's backpack. So what happens is there's a TSA officer who is viewing the X-ray monitor. And if they see what appears to be a firearm, first thing they're going to do is that they're going to leave that backpack inside the X-ray machine and they're going to turn off the conveyor belt. And then they're going to notify a supervisor, the supervisor is going to come and take an extra look at the X-ray monitor as well. So you've got the double confirmation. At that point, the supervisor is going to make sure that the police are notified. In this case, it will be the Allegheny County Police. Then they stay up at the airport and they're going to come over to that checkpoint. And they are going to be the ones that remove that backpack from the X-ray machine. And that's because if indeed they determine that it is a legit firearm and say not a replica, we do not want our TSA officers to be in a position of handling firearms because that's an accident waiting to happen. So the police, again, will come over and they're going to remove that backpack. They're going to open the backpack and then they're going to be the one to confirm, yes, it is a firearm, and in about 90% of the cases, they are loaded. And they're going to have the passenger come to the side. So what happens is, until all that takes place, everybody else in that line has come to a standstill. Now they're going to come to a standstill. Sometimes they are moved to another lane, which is then going to make that lane even longer, that other checkpoint lane. So the police are pretty quick about coming and responding to the checkpoint. But that could be definitely a delay for several hundred passengers. So keep that in mind. At that point, it is really up to the police whether somebody will be sighted, somebody will be arrested, or none of the above. But in any instance, the police will be confiscating that firearm. TSA does not confiscate weapons the police do. Lisa, I'm curious to know, do you have any estimate on how many passengers on average are delayed when this happens, when you have to shut down one of the lanes at the checkpoint? How many people are delayed? Is this in the thousands in an annual period? You know, I do not have anything like that, and a lot of it has to do with the time of day. So the early morning rush hour, so airports have rush hours just like highways, and their early morning at Pittsburgh is the busiest time of day, say maybe from maybe four to seven am. So right now is probably pretty darn busy at the checkpoint. So if I'm the person with the handgun that's in my bag at the TSA, what happens to me? You said one of three options that it's the police, their call, right? Right. So the police will deal with any criminal citations, any criminal, obviously an arrest will be a criminal case, and TSA also will have its inspectors review the incident right up every report, and then the individual is likely to receive a federal civil financial penalty, typically that can run into the several thousands of dollars. In addition, if an individual is in the TSA pre-check program, they're going to get booted out of the program. Wow. And some other penalties that TSA can impose as well. That said, passengers can bring a firearm onto an aircraft, but it has to be checked through luggage that's in the belly of the plane, right? Exactly. You want to transport your firearm for a flight? That's great. No problem. As long as you pack it the right way. And the way the packet is first, make sure it's unloaded. You think that'd be obvious, but oftentimes it's not, I guess. So you want to make sure it's unloaded, that it's packed in a hard-sided case, that that case is locked, and then you take it to your airline check-in counter, and they're going to make sure, basically you're declaring you want to fly with your firearm, and then the airline will make sure that it is transported in the belly of the plane where nobody has access to it during the flight. And that's key. You want to travel with it fine, but nobody should have access to it during the flight. Lisa, we have a problem because the number of guns that are being stopped at the airport at the checkpoints is increasing instead of going down. I mean, you've got, even at that last moment at the checkpoints, you've got huge signs telling people, you know, no guns, and still, what has to change for this to stop? Well, we need firearm owners to be more responsible, and they need to really pay attention to what is in their carry-on bags. We have a thing, no before you go, and by that we mean make sure that you know the contents of your baggage before you leave for the airport, because you are ultimately responsible for anything that is in your carry-on bag or your check bag. So, indeed, no before you go. All right, Lisa, we appreciate the update. Thank you. You're very welcome. And you're probably excited to move to the new airport next year where you have expanded service. Oh, yeah. We're very excited. We are eagerly awaiting the opening of the new airport. All right, Lisa, Barb Stein, spokesperson for TSA on the Big K Morning Show. So Paul, you got the details. Yeah, it's hard for me to understand how someone could be standing there with a gun in their carry-on and be standing there in front of a six-foot sign that just jumps out at you that says, "This is something you cannot do." One guy said, his wife put it in there and didn't tell him. Yeah. Well, so far, 33 confiscations. The record was last year at 44, so we've got three months to go. I guess the word isn't getting out, and so how does that, how do we change that? I don't know. And perhaps one thing we didn't get into, at least, and she probably couldn't address it anyway, is there an actual federal crime? To bring a gun to an airport checkpoint, and if that were a crime that could be, you know what I'm saying? Right. Then maybe that'd be different, you know, because the fines apparently aren't getting anyone's attention. They're not working.