Doctor Peter Steinmetz thrown off flight at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (KPHX), Arizona

PHOENIX - A Valley doctor who showed up at Sky Harbor with a semi-automatic rifle and was accused of pointing it at travelers is back in the news for another situation at the airport.

Doctor Peter Steinmetz says he was thrown off a Delta Airlines flight presumably because of a conversation he had with another passenger in line at the boarding gate.

Steinmetz says the TSA was doing a random bag check at the gates on Monday and another man had been pulled out of line. Steinmetz says that passenger then cut in front of him and his wife and son and was clearly agitated.

"It became kind of a difficult situation, I had to ask him to calm down, that he was becoming threatening," Steinmetz said.

He claims he went on to try and diffuse the situation by commiserating over what he believes is a pointless security system.

“I said something like ‘do you know how likely you are to be killed in a terrorist attack? Because the answer is one in 20-million in a lifetime.’"

Steinmetz says he and his family went on to board the plane without further incident, but as soon as they sat down a flight attendant, followed by an unidentifiable officer told him he had to get off the plane to speak with some men at the gate. With no clear reason from either about who was waiting to speak with him or why Steinmetz says he politely refused until the pilot directed him to leave.

“At the point I get up and leave and there’s no TSA at the gate.”

Steinmetz says the pilot refused to let him back on the flight without explanation and he was forced to rebook.

Steinmetz says he didn't plan to talk about terrorism but he's not sorry either and sees nothing wrong with using words like terrorist or bomb in an airport as long as it’s in the context of a conversation and not a threat.

"I would use that word almost deliberately, I don't think the federal government has the right to be telling us that we can't say certain words or utterances. The first amendment is crystal clear on this."

The TSA has no comment and calls it an airline issue. ABC15 hasn't heard back from Delta Airlines.

Since the gun incident at Sky Harbor Steinmetz has been put on a watch list so he has go through extra security screenings at the TSA check point.

His attorney, Mark Victor, says there was no due process in that decision so they are now looking into filing a lawsuit over it.

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