Another airline passenger charged with gun in bag

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001 | 9:30 a.m.

For the second time in two days, McCarran International Airport security screeners stopped a man from taking a handgun through a checkpoint, arresting the North Las Vegas resident at the C Gates Tuesday.

John Goobie, 69, was arrested Tuesday morning by Metro Police after screeners allegedly found a .25-caliber handgun in his carry-on bag.

Goobie will face gross misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon, the same charges facing John Charles Goodell, 50, who police arrested at the airport Monday.

"In both instances the men said they were personal guns, and that they had forgot they had them with them," Metro Lt. Ted Moody said.

Goobie, who was scheduled to be on a flight to San Jose, Calif., had a .25 caliber handgun in his carry-on bag as he tried to pass through a checkpoint about 11:30 a.m., police said.

Goodell, a resident of Pismo Beach, Calif., was arrested at the D Gate checkpoint about 7:50 a.m. Monday when screeners detected a .25-caliber Derringer-style handgun inside a leather case, police said. Goodell was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles.

"This kind of thing does happen from time to time," Moody said. "There is a very good system of screeners in place at the airport, and the screeners do a good job."

Both men were booked into the Clark County Jail on gross misdemeanor charges. A first offense of carrying a concealed weapon is a misdemeanor, and any subsequent offense is a felony.

Police said neither Goobie or Goodell had concealed weapons permits, but even if they had it would still have been a misdemeanor to bring the guns into the airport. Nevada Revised Statutes makes it a misdemeanor for a someone with a concealed weapons permit to carry a concealed weapon in a public building on the property of a public airport.