Appearing before a City Council committee Tuesday to explain a controversial incident involving their failure to arrest a heavily armed traveler, Los Angeles International Airport officials called for changes in state law and said they already are changing their procedures to prevent a similar episode.
John J. Driscoll, executive director of the airport, asked council members to endorse an amendment to the state law on carrying concealed weapons that would allow airport security officers to make an arrest any time they had reasonable cause to believe that an airline passenger was carrying a weapon.
Such a law, he said, would have resulted in airport officers arresting Mark Lawrence Kulp, who was stopped at an airport X-ray machine and subsequently found to be carrying a shotgun, an assault weapon, knives, a ski mask, a fake sheriff's badge and more than 100 rounds of ammunition. Although Kulp's weapons were confiscated, he was allowed to continue on to Minnesota after being questioned.
According to Driscoll and others, Kulp was released that day in part because officers did not actually see him place the bags containing the guns and ammunition on the X-ray machine.
Without such personal observation, they were unable to arrest him on misdemeanor charges of carrying an unloaded, concealed weapon. Other officials dispute the officers' interpretation, noting that Kulp acknowledged that the weapons and ammunition were his, but agree that the legal change requested by Driscoll would solve any confusion about the latitude officers have.
The handling of the Sept. 2 incident has mystified many top city officials, who have used it to raise questions about airport security and to suggest that some reforms may be in order. After hearing the Airport Police account of the incident Tuesday, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who convened the hearing, shrugged and said: "I'm speechless."
Driscoll and other airport officials stressed that Kulp's weapons never made it onto a plane. Kulp, who was arrested in Minnesota on an outstanding warrant for threatening police officers, was "separated from his weapons," meaning he would not endanger passengers on the plane he was trying to board, Driscoll said.
Still, despite the insistence of Airport Commission Vice President Mary Schnegg that "our security measures were flawless," other officials said aspects of the incident were not handled well.
