In Many U.S. Airports, Guns Are OK outside Security

Flying in the U.S. has been transformed since Sept. 11, with passengers forced to remove their shoes, take out their laptop computers and put liquids and gels in clear plastic bags. Yet it’s perfectly legal to take a loaded gun right up to the security checkpoint at some of the nation’s biggest airports.

An Associated Press survey of the 20 busiest U.S. airports found that seven of them -Philadelphia, Detroit, Phoenix, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and San Francisco- let people with gun permits carry firearms in the general public areas of the terminal.

Some anti-terrorism experts say that is a glaring security loophole that could endanger airport workers, passengers and people waiting to pick them up or see them off. Some suggest that allowing guns in terminals is practically asking for them to be smuggled aboard a plane.

Under federal law, it is illegal everywhere to try to carry a gun through a security checkpoint. The rest of the terminal, however, has long been the domain of state and local authorities. Jon Allen, a spokesman for the Federal Transportation Security Administration, said the TSA has not taken a position on guns in airports and has no authority under federal law to ban them.

However, even at those airports that ban guns, officials are not frisking people or using metal detectors on them as they enter the terminal. Experts say an additional layer of security like that would be unworkable at America’s bustling airports.