In 2022, Somehow At Least 92 People in Ohio Didn't Know That It's Illegal to Bring a Gun on a Plane

Lack of Direct Flights Out of Cleveland Flying somewhere out of Hopkins? Congrats, you can go to like eight places directly. While all your friends in bigger cities get direct flights, you’re stuck on two or three connections to reach your destination. Among the many reasons Cleveland is not a real city, this is up there. And we haven’t even gotten to the condition of the bathrooms. Credit: Tim Evanson/Flicrk CC

Ninety-two people tried to bring a gun onto a plane on flights departing from Ohio last year, according to the TSA.

Thirty-five of those were at Hopkins, another 40 at John Glenn Columbus International Airport in Columbus, just two at Akron-Canton, 13 at Dayton International Airport and two at the Rickenbacker International Airport.

These were people packing heat as a carry-on, which, if you didn’t know, is definitely illegal.

Passengers can check unloaded and locked guns so long as they are in a hard-sided container, according to the TSA’s website.

Individuals caught trying to carry on guns could receive a several thousand dollar fine as well as a criminal referral to local law enforcement, according to California-based attorney William Kroger’s website.

Those 92 people caught with guns at a Lambert’s TSA checkpoint ought to consider themselves lucky. If they would have gotten the gun onto the plane and then been caught with it, they would be looking a fine as high as $250,000 and up to a decade in prison. This assumes they weren’t trying to use the gun to commit a hijacking or an act of terrorism, in which case they could face charges for, well, hijacking or terrorism.

TSA found 448 guns at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in 2022 — the most in the nation, followed by two airports in (no surprise) Texas: Dallas Fort Worth International (385) and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (298).

Also in bringing-guns-onto-planes news, last week someone tried to bring a rocket launcher onto a flight in San Antonio.

With reporting by Ryan Krull.

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This article appears in Jan 11-24, 2023.