A well-known Tea Party activist took a disorderly conduct plea deal today after he was arrested for handing over his unloaded gun to TSA security before getting on a flight at LaGuardia Airport last month.
Mark Meckler was busted last month as he tried to board a Detroit-bound Delta Air Lines flight with the weapon.
Meckler alerted the airport security that he had the .9mm Glock in a locked box and produced a valid California permit. He was arrested and charged with criminal possession of weapon.
Meckler is among several visitors to the Big Apple recently who have been arrested under New York’s tough gun laws.
“I understand the problem of gun violence, but there has to be a better way to solve this,” said Meckler’s lawyer, Brian Stapleton, “Arresting law abiding citizens for declaring a licensed firearm is anti-second Amendment…its ridiculous.”
Last Saturday, Fred Vankirk, 59, who has a gun permit from Ohio was handcuffed for carrying three guns with him into the Big Apple. On Dec. 22, Tennessee nurse Meredith Graves was collared after she tried to check her .32-caliber Kel-Tec pistol at the 9/11 Memorial. A third person, Indiana jeweler Ryan Jerome, 28, was busted after trying to check his .45 Ruger at the Empire State Building on Sept. 27.
Meckler was facing up to 15 years in prison, but took the easier route and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He was immediately sentenced by a Queens judge to a conditional discharge, fined $250 and released.
The gun was not returned to Meckler and was disposed of, according to a DA’s office spokesperson.