Grandma Arrested At LaGuardia After TSA Finds Loaded Gun In Bag

EAST ELMHURST, QUEENS — A North Carolina woman was arrested Monday at LaGuardia Airport after security officers found a loaded gun in her suitcase.

Transportation Security Administration officers spotted the handgun in a red roller-bag suitcase as it went through an X-ray machine, a spokesperson said. It was loaded with six bullets.

The woman, who was traveling with two of her grandchildren, told officials she didn't know the gun was in her carry-on because she had borrowed the bag.

Port Authority police arrested the unnamed woman on weapons charges.

This was the sixth firearm that TSA officers have caught at LaGuardia Airport security checkpoints so far this year, an agency spokesperson said.

Travelers can pack firearms in checked baggage, but they must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked and packed separately from ammunition, the TSA says. Travelers with concealed carry permits cannot bring guns onto airplanes in their carry-on bags.