ARLINGTON, Va. — TSA officers at Ronald Reagan National Airport stopped a woman from carrying a loaded gun onto her flight Christmas Eve. It marked the 39th gun that TSA officers at the airport have detected at the checkpoints so far this year, which is the most guns caught in a single year.
The 9 mm gun was loaded with six bullets when the TSA officers found the weapon among her carry-on items.
This is the latest example in a growing trend seen in travelers who are bringing guns to airport checkpoints across the country. TSA says the previous record number of firearms stopped at DCA in a single year was 30, which took place in 2021.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police confiscated the gun and cited the woman on a weapons charge.
Guns are not allowed through the security checkpoint and the woman now faces a stiff financial civil penalty from TSA, up to $15,000.
“Bringing a gun to an airport security checkpoint was no way to enter the holiday,” said John Busch, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport. “There’s naughty and there’s nice at this time of year and the nice way to transport your firearm is to make sure it is unloaded, locked in a hard-sided case and declared at your airline check-in counter. The naughty way is to bring it to a checkpoint. This traveler was cited by the police and will likely receive a federal civil penalty of thousands of dollars. Responsible gun owners know where their guns are at all times and they know not to bring them to an airport checkpoint.”
Last year, 6,542 firearms were caught at airport security checkpoints nationwide. So far this year more than 6,000 handguns have been stopped at security checkpoints by TSA officers across the country.
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