ARLINGTON, Va. — A Prince William County woman had a loaded 9 mm handgun when Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) prevented her from getting on a flight Tuesday, according to TSA in a statement to WUSA9.
The gun was spotted when the lady went through an X-ray machine, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police were alerted. The police confiscated the gun and cited the woman, a resident of Dumfries, Virginia, on a weapons charge, said TSA.
“The detection of the gun yesterday was the 20th caught at our checkpoints so far this year, which now doubles the number that were caught in 2020,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA Federal Security Director for Reagan National Airport. “This is a disturbing trend that we would much prefer to see go in the opposite direction.”
According to agency data, the 20 guns found so far in 2021 are the most found by TSA in a single year over the last five years at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The 20 guns found in 2021 double the amount found in 2020, which was 10. In 2018, 16 guns were found at DCA over a year, showed the TSA's data.
Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter. Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided locked case, and packed separately from ammunition. Then the locked case should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared. TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website.
The complete list of civil penalties for a gun carried illegally at an airport is posted online. Additionally, if a traveler with a gun is a member of TSA Precheck®, that individual will lose their TSA Precheck privileges.
