Last Monday, Nov. 25, someone tried to carry a loaded 9mm handgun onto a plane at John Wayne Airport, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
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The 9mm was among 34 firearms retrieved at airports around the country that week, 27 of which were loaded and six of which had rounds chambered, according to The TSA Blog.
The gun at SNA was loaded but there was no round in the chamber.
That same week, a stun gun was among the items in a carry-on at John Wayne, the TSA also announced. The stun gun was among 22 found at the nation's airports, including three at Los Angeles International Airport, last week.
The TSA reminds that traveling with firearms in checked baggage is fine as long as they are first declared to the airline. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality, something travelers are urged to familiarize themselves with prior to departure.
Even a passenger with no evil intent can face a penalty as high as $7,500 for trying to bring an undeclared firearm onto a plane, the TSA notes.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.