As reported, a man allegedly attempted to carry a loaded homemade firearm onto an aircraft at O’Hare international airport in Chicago. Rodolfo Duarte, 27, of the 6300 block of West 37th Street in Berwyn, was arrested and will first appear in court on January 15th. The police describe the homemade weapon as having been ready to fire, with a round in the chamber and at least one other round outside the chamber. This follows on the heels of another airport gun arrest the day before, when Goce Stojanovski, of the 1100 block of West Driftwood Trail in Crown Point, IN was reportedly charged with trying to board an aircraft at O’Hare with a loaded .25 caliber pistol.
The federal government prohibits carrying a loaded weapon onto an aircraft. The state of Illinois prohibits the carrying of a loaded gun. The city of Chicago prohibits handgun possession. Various levels of government prohibit the creation of such a home made gun. However none of these laws deter criminals, any more than our laws against murder or armed robbery stop those crime from being committed. If criminals are willing to carry guns into airports, where they know that security will search and x-ray for them, and where it is about as illegal to have a gun as it can get, what chance to handgun bans have of succeeding on the street, where cops cannot search citizens without cause? (For those that are seriously pondering that question, I would suggest taking a look at this article and this article.)
I would not worry about this. How can any one hijack a plane with a home made gun? Ever body know that the belt feed, full automatic, light weight, 50 caliber, sub machine gun is the choice of terrorist. After all, the 9/11 hijacker used box cutters.
Merry Christmas to all… and to all a good night.