A Palmerton man was cited by police on Saturday after Transportation Security Administration officers at Lehigh Valley International Airport intercepted the man’s gun at the airport security checkpoint.

TSA officials notified the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority police, who confiscated the weapon and removed the man from the checkpoint for questioning. Police confiscated the gun and cited him on a criminal charge.

It was the second firearm that TSA officers have intercepted at the checkpoint so far this year. In 2024, TSA officers detected three guns.

“We have a procedure in place for properly packing a firearm for a flight, and bringing a loaded gun to a checkpoint is certainly not the proper procedure,” said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Pennsylvania. “The gun needs to be unloaded, packed in a locked hard-sided case and taken to your airline check-in counter so that it is transported in the underbelly of the aircraft. This way nobody has access to it during the flight. The man now faces a federal civil financial penalty for bringing his gun to the checkpoint.”

Bringing a gun to an airport checkpoint carries a federal civil penalty because TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint. Civil penalties for bringing a weapon into a checkpoint can reach up to $15,000, depending on the specific weapon and the circumstances.

This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. This also applies to travelers who are enrolled in the TSA PreCheck® program, who will lose their TSA PreCheck privileges if they bring a gun to a checkpoint. The complete list of civil penalties is posted online.

When a gun is detected in the checkpoint X-ray unit, the conveyor belt is stopped, and the police are notified. Police remove the carry-on bag from the X-ray unit because TSA does not want its officers handling firearms. Police determine whether a traveler is arrested or issued a criminal citation. Meanwhile the remaining passengers in the checkpoint lane either wait for the issue to be resolved or they are shifted to another checkpoint lane, thus delaying dozens of passengers from getting to their gates.

Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality and passengers should do their homework to make sure that they are not violating any local firearm laws. Travelers should also contact their airline as they may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.

Download the free myTSA app, which has a handy “What can I bring?” feature that allows you to type in the item to find out if it can fly.