Top Scout Exec Forgot He Had Gun In His Bag

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.

The Scouts, based in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas, said Monday it was an honest mistake.

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

“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.

Creelman said Ratcliffe, of Southlake, Texas, has no Florida concealed weapons permit and couldn’t bring the gun into the terminal even if he did.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said there was no record that Ratcliffe holds a Texas permit.