TSA says it will investigate how PDX security let Sen. Wilson's revolver past checkpoint

Breach, arrest in Hong Kong put maligned agency under scrutiny, too

Federal officials say they will investigate how state Sen. Jeff  Wilson of Longview got an unloaded revolver past a security checkpoint at Portland International Office on Friday.

The  investigation will include a review of closed circuit television video as well as images from security screening equipment, the agency announced Tuesday.

The Transportation Security Agency “takes this situation very seriously and is currently investigating the circumstances,” TSA said in a statement sent in response to questions I submitted Tuesday.

“Appropriate corrective action may be required with additional training,” the statement continued.

The incident attracted national attention, with news reports appearing on network newscasts and other places.

The Longview Republican, 63, was booked at Hong Kong International Airport after flying from Portland to San Francisco and then on to Hong Kong. He did not have to go through TSA security in San Francisco.

Through a Senate spokesman, Wilson attributed the incident to an “honest mistake” — that he unknowingly left his .38 caliber revolver in a carry-on bag he often uses on his travels. He only discovered it in mid-flight en route to Hong Kong when he went into the carry-on to get a piece of gum. The gun escaped detection in Portland.

Wilson said he reported the gun to airport security when he arrived in Hong Kong, then was arrested. Press accounts from there say airport security spotted the gun.

Wilson is charged with possession of an unregistered firearm. He is free on bail and has a lawyer, but he had to surrender his passport and the case has disrupted a planned five-week personal vacation to Southeast Asia with his wife.

Wilson’s office said he has a concealed weapons permit in Washington and the gun is licensed here. However, it is not licensed in Hong Kong, which has strict gun control laws and where private gun ownership is rare.

A Wilson spokesman said there were no new developments in Hong Kong Tuesday, but the incident has cast scrutiny on the TSA in addition to Wilson.

TSA, established by Congress to boost travel safety following the  9/11 airliner terrorist attacks, has been heavily criticized over tests that found that guns, other weapons and drugs go undetected a majority of the time at airport security checkpoints.

Nevertheless, the Wilson affair comes at a time when “TSA officers nationwide are catching firearms at checkpoints at a record pace,”according to the TSA statement.

Officers at Portland International Airport have detected 43 firearms at security checkpoints to date in 2023.

Last year, transportation security officers detected 108 firearms in carry-on luggage in Oregon, a record number, according to the Seattle Times, quoting TSA. 

Seventy-eight of those were found at PDX, which was a record for the airport, too. Firearms were found at a higher rate at PDX — about 10 per one million passengers screened — than the national average. The airport screened about 7.7 million passengers in 2022.

The TSA reported stopping 3,251 firearms at U.S. airport checkpoints in the first half of this year — or about 8 firearms per million passengers (down slightly from the year before). About 92% of the guns were loaded.

“Firearms are not permitted in the secure area of airports and represents an expensive mistake for those who are stopped at checkpoints with firearms in their possession. The penalty for bringing a firearm to a TSA checkpoint may be as high as $15,000, and those stopped are ineligible for TSA PreCheck® for up to five years,” TSA said.

“This is not a new problem, but it is one that must be addressed since we have reached an unacceptable level (of) firearms coming through our security checkpoints,” according to a statement from Kathleen McDonald, TSA Federal Security Director for Oregon. “We are pleading with the traveling public to double-check the contents of your carry-on luggage and follow the proper procedures for traveling with firearms.”

In the United States, it is legal to transport unloaded firearms in checked baggage if they are locked in a hard-sided container. They must be declared at the ticket counter. Some airlines have additional requirements.

TSA did not respond to several other questions: Among them:  How are guns most commonly detected at checkpoints, through x-rays of carry-on baggage or metal-detecting body scanners? What are the chances that an x-ray machine would miss a gun concealed in a carry-on? Are security breaches more often due to human or machine error?

Wilson is the former owner and operator of Cowlitz Clean Sweep and has been involved in several high-profile local community causes, such as the restoration of the Shay Locomotive at the Longview Public Library and efforts to clean up hypodermic needles discarded by drug users.

In addition to representing the 19th District in the Legislature, Wilson also is a  Port of Longview commissioner.