NEWS: Never Forget? LaGuardia Flier Busted for Carrying Gun

Georgia traveler just forget he was carrying heat, authorities said
By JONATHAN DIENST
Updated 4:30 PM EDT, Fri, Sep 11, 2009


As New York remembered the 9/11 attacks, a man with a loaded handgun tried to board a Delta Airlines flight at LaGuardia Airport, authorities said.

Transportation Security Administration Officer Raymond Rivera spotted the weapon in the man's carry-on bag and alerted Port Authority police who took him into custody.

Michael Williams, 40, of Peachtree City, GA was arrested while trying to catch a Delta flight to Atlanta, a Port Authority police spokesman said. Williams told investigators he simply forgot the fully loaded 9-millimeter Smith and Wesson handgun was in his bag.

Officials said there is no indication Williams was planning any sort of threat with the loaded weapon. He is expected to be arraigned in Queens criminal court later Friday .

The 9-11 hijackers smuggled boxcutters onto the jetliners. They used the weapons to commandeer the planes and crash them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Security screening has been expanded in recent years with LaGuardia airport now using some 3-d machines to better screen for weapons.

At LaGuardia alone, TSA officers find weapons every day, officials said. In the last year, LaGuardia screeners confiscated hundreds of weapons, including two firearms, 65 boxcutters, and 650 knives and blades, authorities said.

TSO Raymond Rivera works on detail directly for me and I am very proud of his hard work.

Now that the TSA isn't just lighter hunting, they can find things that matter.

(not trying to start a debate on the tsa)