Mayor's Wife Nailed for Loaded Gun at Calif. Airport

It's just the kind of thing a pistol-packin' Westerner might forget is stashed in her bag, but airport security agents at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport weren't amused. They busted Californian Carrol Parris, wife of Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, when a loaded handgun was spotted on an X-ray check of her carry-on, officials said. Parris' permit to carry a concealed weapon had expired, TSA officials discovered. The mayor called it an "innocent error." His wife was in a rush to visit her new twin grandbabies, and "simply forgot" the gun was in the bag, he said.

Carrol Parris started carrying the gun for protection after the Mongol Nation motorcycle gang sued the city for violating its civil rights for not allowing members to meet in Lancaster, he explained. The mayor doesn't "typically" carry a gun himself because his wife is a better shot and he's more likely to hurt himself, he quipped to the Los Angeles Times. Local police cited Parris for carrying a prohibited item in a secured area, and she was released at the scene. (More Carrol Parris stories.)