Man arrested after checking a loaded rifle at JFK airport

GlobalPost

A Tennessee man was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport on Saturday morning, after he attempted to check a bag containing a loaded, defaced rifle. 

Twenty-three-year old Keenan Draughon was boarding a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina when he was arrested, after New York and New Jersey police found the weapons, wrote the Associated Press.

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Besides the two handguns and the defaced rifle, Draughon also was carrying high capacity magazines, which are illegal in New York City, writes CNN. The accused appears to have covered the serial numbers on the rifles with purple paint, an illegal act. 

"It's unusual, but it's not remarkable," Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo told CNN of the incident. "Luckily, no one got hurt."

Pentangelo told NBC News that Draughon will be arraigned with 24 hours, and has been charged with six felony counts of the criminal possession of a weapon. 

The Transportation Security Administration of the US allows passengers to transport firearms if they are unloaded and then locked in a hard container, writes the New York Times, and all firearms and firearm parts must be checked, instead of carried on. 

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