Boy Scout Leader Is Arrested With Gun at Airport

MIAMI — The nation’s top Boy Scout executive, charged with trying to carry a concealed weapon onto an airplane, said Monday he simply forgot the handgun was in his carry-on bag.

Jere B. Ratcliffe, chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America, was arrested Sunday at Miami International Airport when an X-ray revealed the .32-caliber gun in his luggage.

“I simply forgot that I had the gun with me,” Ratcliffe said in a statement released by spokesman Gregg Shields.

Ratcliffe was preparing to board a flight to Jacksonville, Fla., for a vacation at his rural cabin, Shields said. Airport guards opened the bag and found the loaded revolver with 28 rounds of ammunition, police said.

“Most people forget it was there, that’s the bottom line,” police Sgt. David Creelman told the Miami Herald. “We don’t have much choice in these situations. We have to make the arrest.”

Ratcliffe, 59, was released Sunday on $5,000 bond. No court date was set.