PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
Dozens of guns in carry-ons at ABIA this year as change in law nears :: 08/01/2015
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Police arrested the Austin founder of a political Super PAC Thursday for having a handgun in his carry-on bag at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Court documents state an x-ray caught the gun in the bottom of John A. Ramsey’s, 24, carry-on. The documents indicate Ramsey said he went to the range the day before and forgot to remove the gun.
“The next morning I had an early flight to Dallas,” Ramsey said in a phone interview with KXAN News. “I just forgot to take it out. I put [the briefcase] on the belt and it went through. I heard the beeping go off and I knew exactly what I had done wrong. Kind of one of those feelings where your heart is kind of sinks into your chest.”
The court documents show police found a Glock 19 and five rounds of ammunition. Ramsey is the founder of Liberty For All Super PAC.
“I am a law abiding citizen and I meant no harm by it at all. I’ve been threatened. It was just an honest mistake. I think it could have been handled just a little more professionally,” Ramsey said.
The Transportation Security Administration has found more than two dozen guns in carry-on bags so far this year at the Austin airport, according to KXAN’s analysis of TSA data. Of those, 21 guns were loaded and four had chambered rounds, based on preliminary figures.
Starting in September, a bill will protect holders of concealed handgun licenses from being arrested if they have handgun in their bags going through security, as long as they immediately leave the area after screening.
“We’re just glad to see it going into effect so we can bring common sense back to our laws, much like some of the other states in the United States that have this same action,” said State Rep. Drew Muenster, R-Gainesville, an author of the bill.
In April, an Austin firefighter was suspended from work for five days for bringing a handgun to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. According to a disciplinary memorandum, Troy McMillin, an Austin Fire Department Fire Specialist, went through a TSA checkpoint in January with a loaded handgun accidentally stored in his carry-on luggage. Following interviews and investigations, fire officials determined McMillin’s act was a mistake and not intentional.
An Austin judge dismissed the case against a state lawmaker from San Angelo accused of carrying a gun in his carry-on luggage at Austin’s airport.
The San Angelo Standard-Times reports state District Judge Cliff Brown dropped the case against state Rep. Drew Darby at the request of the Travis County district attorney’s office. Austin police arrested Darby in November of 2013 after inspectors found a loaded pistol. He was charged with carrying a prohibited weapon in an airport, a third degree felony. Darby told the arresting officer he holds a concealed handgun license and had forgotten the pistol was in his bag. Prosecutor Buddy Meyer said the investigation backed up that statement.
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http://kxan.com/2015/07/31/founder-of-super-pac-arrested-for-having-gun-in-carry-on/
