Packing heat

DFW shoots toward top of list of airports with most guns discovered in 2018

Many travelers say they forgot they're carrying a gun in their carry-on.

Photo courtesy of Ibarra Engineers

Dallas travelers attempted to fly locked and loaded in 2018. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field ranked in the top 10 last year for the most firearms discovered in carry-on bags at airport security checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

DFW came in second, behind Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, with 219 firearms found in carry-on bags in 2018 by agents working for the TSA, the federal agency reported. Eighty-eight percent of those guns (191) were loaded, TSA says.

Federal law prohibits carrying a gun onto a commercial flight in the U.S.

DFW, a major hub for American Airlines, is the fourth busiest airport in the U.S. as measured by passenger traffic.

At Dallas Love Field, TSA agents recovered 89 guns from carry-on bags last year. Of those, 93 percent (83 guns) were loaded, according to TSA. Overall, Dallas Love Field ranked ninth for gun discoveries.

DFW repeated its No. 2 ranking for firearm discoveries from 2017, TSA says. However, seven fewer guns were found last year compared with 2017.

Dallas Love Field ranked eighth last year for guns discovered in carry-on bags. Four more firearms were found there in 2018 than in 2017, TSA says.

Aside from DFW and Dallas Love Field, two other Texas airports showed up in the top 10 for the discovery of firearms in carry-on bags.

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport ranked sixth, with 117 guns found in carry-on bags last year. Of those, 98 percent (115 guns) were loaded, TSA says.

For 2017, Bush Intercontinental held the No. 3 spot for gun discoveries at U.S. airports (142). The number of firearms found by TSA agents dropped 18 percent from 2017 to 2018.

Bush Intercontinental, a major hub for United Airlines, ranks as the ninth busiest airport in the U.S. as measured by passenger traffic.

Meanwhile, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport ranked eighth, with 93 guns found by TSA agents in carry-on bags in 2018. Eighty-two percent of those guns were loaded (76). ABIA didn’t appear in the top 10 for 2017.

Among all U.S. airports, TSA agents found a record-setting 4,329 guns in carry-on bags last year, up 7 percent from 2017. Of those firearms, 86 percent were loaded, TSA says.

TSA says you can carry an unloaded firearm when you’re flying on an airline, but only if it’s stored in a locked hard-sided container in a checked bag. Guns, loaded or unloaded, aren’t allowed in carry-on bags. Ammunition also must be kept only in checked bags.

“We strongly suggest travelers contact their airline for specific firearm and ammunition policies,” TSA says, “and check local laws related to the carrying and transport of firearms. If you plan to travel with your firearm, make sure you know the rules for packing it in your checked baggage.”

On its website, the Fort Worth-based Medlin Law Firm says it’s not unusual for a traveler to have simply forgotten that a legally owned gun is in his or her carry-on bag.

“For instance, consider a person that uses the same suitcase to go on different business trips,” the law firm says. “They may have packed their legally owned weapon with them to drive to a business meeting, and months later, forget that it is still in that suitcase as they head off to the airport for their next business meeting.”

For someone to be found guilty of unlawfully carrying a gun at an airport, he or she “must intentionally, knowingly or recklessly carry that weapon,” the firm says. Under that provision, many criminal charges in such cases are dismissed because the gun owner merely forgot the firearm was in a carry-on bag and did not mean to bring it aboard a plane, according to the firm.

transportation

Uptown News

Euro-style Hotel St. Germain in Uptown Dallas closed after 33 years

Google Maps / Flashback Dallas

Hotel St. Germain

A darling boutique hotel in Uptown Dallas that was Dallas' first B&B has closed: Hotel St. Germain, which occupied a turn-of-the-century home at 2516 Maple St., closed its doors and auctioned off its furnishings in an estate sale that took place November 8-10.

A friend of the family that owned the hotel confirmed that it had been closed for nearly a year, and that the property was recently sold to an undisclosed buyer who intends to maintain its lodging status.

It's in a prime location, since Maple Avenue is currently going through a major turnover from bumpy little street to the home of big projects like Maple Terrace, the 22-story residential tower at 3003 Maple Ave.

Hotel St. Germain was opened in 1991 by businesswoman and former New Orleans resident Claire Heymann, the granddaughter of a Paris antiques dealer, who did exactly what preservationists dream about: She took a crumbling old home built in 1900 and transformed it, giving it a stunning makeover and filling it with fine art and antiques: one-of-a-kind sleigh beds, spindly antique desks, amber wall sconces, vintage bathroom fittings, and sparkling crystal chandeliers.

The property had only seven rooms, each unique, and was Dallas' first bed-and-breakfast inn. It also had a quirky in-house restaurant featuring acclaimed chefs of the day such as William Guthrie.

It's disappointing to have missed the sale with its assortment of leaded glass windows, vintage sinks, chandeliers, and French antique furniture.

Flashback Dallas shares a history of the structure, and food writer Mark Stuertz (who co-authored Fork Fight!, the memoir by Pei Wei co-founder Mark Brezinski) wrote a great review of the restaurant in 1997, recounting its colorful past.

"Heymann discovered the property in the late '80s, then a foreclosed, boarded-up hovel facing a wrecking ball, while scouring the area between McKinney and Turtle Creek for an old house worthy of conversion into a small, stylish hotel similar to those she had visited on numerous jaunts to San Francisco," he wrote.

Heymann named it for the St. Germain area of Paris, and filled it with elegant furnishings, many from her antiques dealer mother. Stuertz called the result "an odd mix of romance, quaintness, European-style finery, and antique-collector busyness," "stuffed with fabrics fussily pleated, puddled, lashed and tasseled, as well as handsome furnishings seasoned with art deco accents and shabby chic touches."

The closure was due in part to the fact that Heymann has been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and is in a nursing home.

Gary Bellomy, who worked at the hotel, posted an elegy on Facebook, calling her "one of the most complicated and brilliant women I have known."

"Hotel St. Germain, her mad, brilliant brainstorm joins the ranks of Dallas’ unique history," he said. "Many of you will mourn. It is unlikely we will ever see this level of French sophistication in this spot we call home."

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