Playboy’s Miss July 2010 Shanna Marie McLaughlin Charged With Misdemeanor After TSA Finds Gun At Orlando Airport

Playboy Playmate Accused Of Packing Heat At Airport

August 11, 2011 11:42 AM

Shanna Marie McLaughlin at a Super Bowl XLV party in February 2011 (left), and Monday’s mugshot. (credit: Jordan Strauss/Getty Images and Orange County Jail)

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ORLANDO, Fla. (CBS Tampa) - Playboy’s Miss July 2010 has to be used to intense photo shoots by now, but Monday’s unexpected pictures were a little different: Mugshots.

Shanna Marie McLaughlin, 26, was arrested at Orlando International Airport when a loaded handgun was found in her carry-on luggage.

McLaughlin was charged with carrying a firearm in a place prohibited by law, a misdemeanor. Authorities were flagged when a Transportation Security Administration screener spotted something unusual during a routine security X-ray scan. According to the affidavit, a Ruger SAA .45 Long Colt handgun loaded with hollow point bullets was found in her carry-on duffle bag.

According to news site ClickOrlando.com, McLaughlin, a former University of Central Florida graduate student turned Playboy model, was released on $250 bond. Although the Playmate reportedly has a concealed weapons permit, loaded guns are prohibited from all US flights.

Violating TSA rules can result in criminal prosecution and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

McLaughlin reportedly told police the gun belonged to her boyfriend and she didn’t know it was in her baggage.

Playboy Playmate Accused Of Packing Heat At Airport

Darin

Who cares
socrates

Blonde???
Klaus

Her with that gun would have provided far more protection against a hijacker than the worthless TSA. End the TSA immediately. We’re in the Age of Austerity, Washington, and this means your entire budget for Homeland Security and the military must go. Long live the Second Amendment. Long live the U.S. Constitution. Justice to all those who hate it.

Santa

Entire budget for the military? That’s the most ridiculous statement I’ve heard in a long time.
BuddyP

Klaus,

Do you ever read what you write? It’s time to adjust your meds, man.
Frederick

BRAVO KLAUS; Well constructed and succinct.

Joe Doakes

Lock up you pistol before you enter security. How is this so complex?

Do I need to make a blonde joke?

frank

are you a blonde?

Cappy Hamper

She knew w=about the firearm and she was up to no good. Why else would she have changed her hair color from blonde to dirty gray?
Elery

Disband the TSA and reduce the air fare for concealed carry permit holders who are willing to help with flight security.

frank

Here here!

Mannie

Ruger doesn’t make a “SAA.” The closest is their Vaquero, which is an SAA look-alike. This is a big gun. Think of the Peacemakers carried by generations of Hollywood cowboys. I don’t know how that could be in one’s carry on without knowing it.

Then again, she IS blonde.
LAbilly

Shouldn’t that read her “ex-boyfriend”… If you don’t know where your loaded gun is at all times, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to have one. At a minimum she should lose her concealed carry permit if she indeed has one.
Brit

This kind of thing happens ALL of the time. I mean ALL of the time. A lot of people from your average college graduate to a Judge have had this happen. Especially if you are driving from one place to another to catch a cheaper flight and you forget that it’s in your bag, it’s an honest mistake. These cases get thrown out all of the time.

Juan Tomatoe

Indeed it does happen even to responsible people. For example U.S. Senator Jim Webb (Dem-Virginia): http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/washington/28gun.html

That said, the people saying better to have her with a CCW permit and gun on the plane than TSA, are forgetting a few things: 1) She didn’t know she had the gun, so no user there. 2) The gun was not loaded with the special ammunition needed inside an airplane to prevent depressurizing the cabin. 3) She probably isn’t trained in Close-Quarters Combat surrounded by innocents packed like sardines into a shiny metal box. That said, I’m all fine with disbanding the TSA.

Richard

Juan
Special ammo to prevent depressurization? You are a freakin genius to have invented that one.
I just hope you aren’t an Air Marshall.
Eric Swinson

Unlike in the movies a bullet hole or two is not going to depressurize the cabin. The plane is already full of holes bigger than that anyway.

Hollow-points in the situation are probably more ideal because they won’t ricochet as much. If you are thinking of fragmenting rounds, you may as well just throw bags of peanuts at the suspect and hope he has an allergy.

Leroy

Brit, you are absolutely right. It happened to me. And I am a normally intelligent, law abiding professional person who, in the rush to catch a flight, forgot that I had put the Kel-tec .380 in my briefcase several days earlier, intending to leave it in my vehicle. When the TSA screener saw it and they threw the cuffs on me I have never, ever felt so stupid in my entire life. I do have a concealed license, and the charges were dropped as it was plainly evident to everyone involved that I was not carrying the gun “knowingly, willfully or recklessly” the definition of which merits the charge. Cost me $1500 to TSA, $500 to a bail bondsman and $4000 to a lawyer. I also had to surrender my concealed license until the charges were dropped. You better believe that I carefully inspect my briefcase before every flight now, even if I know there’s nothing offending in it. Man, I don’t want to go through that again.

Rick

“Her with that gun would have provided far more protection against a hijacker than the worthless TSA. ”
Absolutely…
The same people that we fly with are the same people that protect us on the streets – those that carry.
People tend to think differently when they walk through my town! Just across the county carry is not permitted… which county has less crime?? I can tell you, The County I live in!
“Carry on” brothers and sisters in America!
Frank

Playboy has surely lowered their standards from the Brandi Brandt days. This girl is rather meh.
changomango

To bad she wasn’t Muslim or a minority, they never would have scrutinized her carry on and/or found the gun out of fear of “insulting” her.
Ed Cole

Sounds like she ticked off her lover. That is one of the ultimate get-even things to pull on someone. Sucks to be her.
Dean-o

I don’t think I’d give her a second look if I saw her on the street.
charlie

yowza. playmate? i know mugshots aren’t supposed to be flattering, but (based on the one above) would anyone passing this girl on the street give her a second look?
Rich

The news is that the TSA actually prevented a handgun from getting on a flight this time.
HMichaelH

Come on! SHe’s a blond! You can’t expect her to remember things like a load .45 in her purse, do you?
Doug

Wow, they are really saving the world from the Playboy bunnies. Are we sure they are not looking for Islamic terrorists, maybe they are actually members of teh ba’th party, themselves? Do they get background checks? Maybe they should be stripped searched and prodded. Have their houses searched from end to end. Just to make sure.