The 49-year-old co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots got off with a slap on the wrist on Thursday after he was recently arrested for illegally possessing a handgun at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Mark Meckler, who was facing 15 years in prison, plead guilty to disorderly conduct and was fined $250, according to the New York Daily News.

The District Attorney’s office said the .9mm Glock 27 handgun would be destroyed.

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Meckler had been charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, a Class C felony, for traveling with his Glock handgun and 19 cartridges without a New York permit.

“I understand the problem of gun violence, but there has to be a better way to solve this,” Meckler’s lawyer, Brian Stapleton, told The New York Post. “Arresting law abiding citizens for declaring a licensed firearm is anti-second Amendment… its ridiculous.”

Photo: MarkMeckler.net