Delaware State Senator Brian Pettyjohn faces a felony charge for accidentally carrying a weapon into an airport on Thursday morning, Delaware State News reports.
Pettyjohn was detained in the Salisbury Regional Airport Thursday morning when Transportation Security Administration agents found a loaded handgun in his carry-on bag. The senator said that he accidentally left the firearm in his laptop case.
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He was travelling to the Southern Regional Education Board conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office announced the felony charges on Friday, which carry the potential of a 10-year jail sentence. Pettyjohn was questioned by the Sherriff’s office at the airport, and was later released without arrest.
Pettyjohn told the paper in a statement Thursday that he had been “carrying a concealed weapon regularly” after the shooting of U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) at a congressional baseball game practice in Alexandria, Virginia on June 14. The shooting raised security concerns among a number of lawmakers, some of whom responded by proposing gun legislation allowing them to concealed carry in the District of Columbia.
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