Politician Nearly Busted at Mitchell Int'l in Wis.

Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher found himself at the center of the war on terrorism this week -- but this time, he wasn't the one enforcing the laws.

Instead, Bucher, a Republican candidate for attorney general, said Tuesday he was "almost arrested" while traveling with a Waukesha County sheriff's detective who was trying to bring a gun aboard an airliner.

Transportation Security Administration officers stopped Bucher and the detective at Mitchell International Airport on Monday when the detective tried to walk through the regular lanes of an airport security checkpoint with his gun, said Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman. No one was arrested in the incident, she said.

"We were traveling armed, and we went in the wrong lane," Bucher said from Phoenix.

Bucher traveled to Arizona to meet with Taser International, manufacturers of the electronic device. He's investigating the death of 29-year-old Nickolos Cyrus, who died after being stunned by a Taser several times by a Town of Mukwonago police sergeant July 9. Bucher has ordered an inquest.

Local law enforcement officers can carry guns on aircraft if they have proper documentation proving their identity and their need to keep their weapon with them, Milwaukee County Sheriff's Capt. Edward Bailey and Waukesha County Sheriff's Detective Steve Pedersen said.

The detective traveling with Bucher had all the correct paperwork, Pedersen and Uselding said. But the detective apparently didn't understand that he was supposed to proceed through the checkpoint a different way when carrying a gun, Uselding said. Instead, he just tried to walk through with all the other passengers, and TSA officers reacted immediately when they spotted the gun, she said.

As soon as the detective showed TSA officers he had the correct paperwork, they told him how to pass through the checkpoint and let him board the aircraft, Uselding said.