Another gun found on traveler at Pittsburgh International Airport

Passengers still cannot bring their firearms through security at Pittsburgh International Airport.

They couldn’t Monday, when a Youngstown woman was caught with a loaded handgun in her purse, and they still couldn’t a day later when a man from Moon was stopped with a loaded handgun in his backpack.

Nor could passengers bring firearms any of the other 15 times travelers have been stopped with guns at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints in Pittsburgh this year.

The two passengers in two days told TSA officers they’d forgotten they had their respective loaded weapons with them, said TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. The Youngstown woman was carrying a 9mm loaded with seven rounds, Farbstein said. The Moon man had eight rounds in his .380-caliber handgun.

The federal regulation is not new, nor is the fact that, each year, thousands of guns are caught on checkpoint X-ray machines across the country. That number remained in the thousands in 2020 even as passenger volume fell by 500 million amid the pandemic. Nationwide, security officers stopped 3,257 firearms, including 21 in Pittsburgh.

There had been a slight but steady increase in the years leading up to the pandemic: 32 in 2017, 34 in 2018 and 35 in 2019.

Passengers can bring their firearms, but they must be packed, unloaded, in a hard-sided carrying case, and it must be checked with other baggage, Farbstein said. A concealed carry permit does not exempt a traveler from this process.

When security officers catch a gun at the airport checkpoint, it brings the entire lane to a standstill, Farbstein said. Depending upon the circumstances, the gun owner could be charged criminally and, at the very least, face federal civil penalties that start at $4,300.