American Grandma Busted in Bahamas for Accidentally Bringing Pistol on Cruise

It’s happened again. Another American has been busted overseas with a gun they ‘forgot’ was in their bag or in this case a purse. According to the Daily Mail, “An elderly Oklahoma grandma is being held in a hellhole Bahamas prison condemned as ‘not fit for humanity’ after she accidentally took a gun on board a cruise ship. Lawyers for Mary Robinson, 69, say she simply forgot the .380 pistol was in her purse when she boarded the Liberty of the Seas. It went unnoticed by security in Fort Lauderdale but was detected in Nassau when Robinson got back on board the ship after taking her adopted 12-year-old son sightseeing.”

The judge gave her the option of an $8,000 fine but when she couldn’t pay it on the spot she was sentenced to a default two-year jail term. Her family launched a GoFundMe to raise cash for her release but for now she will remain behind bars.

Port Everglades security in Fort Lauderdale obviously failed to catch the Kel-Tec .380 pistol with four bullets when she boarded Liberty of the Seas on December 1.

The weapon was a gift from her aunt more than 50 years ago and she was legally licensed to carry it in the US. According to her lawyer, “She simply forgot that she had the gun and I’m instructed that she has a touch of dementia.”

According to the Royal Bahamas Police: “On Tuesday, December 2, 2025, police arrested a 69-year-old female of US nationality after she was found in possession of a firearm and ammunition. According to the initial report, shortly after 3:00 p.m., officers attached to Interpol, acting on information, boarded a cruise ship at Prince George Wharf. Once onboard, a female suspect of interest was identified and subsequently arrested after being found in possession of a firearm and ammunition. The investigation remains ongoing.”

In 2024, similar incidents happened in Turks and Caicos when five Americans on separate occasions were arrested for having just ammunition in their bags. But just like Robinson, most of these people had been caught when going through security leaving the country, either at the airport or the cruise port.

The big story should really be how the United States Transportation Security Administration keeps missing all of these incidents. All of the offenders admitted to owning the ammunition but foolishly hadn’t removed it from their travel bag. If you own a gun, it is essential that you double and triple-check your bags and all its compartments to make sure there are no stray bullets inside.

My advice is to not even use the same bag for travel that you use for hunting or to store your guns and ammunition. When you travel, you have to know and abide by the laws of the land you are in.

What’s crazy is that I can sadly relate to their foolishness because last week my family and I were in French Polynesia. When we went through security at Papeete International Airport (PPT) to catch a flight to Raiatea, my 6-year-old daughter’s backpack was flagged. It turns out she had a water pistol in there from summer camp two years ago. My wife said she decided to take the kid’s old backpacks instead of their school ones so they didn’t get dirty. Well, she forgot to go through all the pockets. Fortunately, it was just a toy gun but it could have gotten us into some serious trouble and why didn’t TSA catch it when we went through LAX’s security three days before? With the USA’s lax gun laws, getting caught at home is far safer than getting caught overseas.