ATLANTA — The arrest of an alleged would-be gunman at Atlanta's airport highlights a state law some people find startling: it’s legal to carry guns at the airport – with some important restrictions.

State law protects gun owners who want to carry firearms outside the airport and even inside the terminal, up to a point.

"Totally uncomfortable by that, I don’t believe guns should be in the airport," said Craig Childs of Asheville, outside the baggage claim terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Tuesday.

Childs says he is a gun owner who had assumed it was illegal to carry a firearm into an airport like Hartsfield Jackson.

"Completely unacceptable," he told 11Alive.

In fact, state and federal law allows legal gun carriers to carry their firearms into Georgia airports –

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