This gun was detected by TSA in a traveler’s carry-on bag at Washington Dulles International Airport on Sept. 6. (TSA photo)
DULLES, Va. – A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) prevented a North Carolina resident from bringing a loaded handgun onto his flight on Tuesday, Sept. 6. The .380 caliber handgun was loaded with six bullets, including one in the chamber. He also had an additional gun magazine loaded with five more bullets packed with the gun.
The weapon was caught as the North Carolina man entered the security checkpoint. The checkpoint X-ray machine alerted the TSA officer who was staffing the X-ray monitor to take a closer look at the contents of the bag. TSA officials notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police who confiscated the gun and cited the man on a weapons charge.
The man claimed that he forgot that he was traveling with his loaded gun and additional ammunition.
“If you own a firearm, you need to know where it is at all times,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport. “That is an important part about being a responsible gun owner.”
Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only 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.
Firearms Caught at the Washington Dulles International Airport checkpoints, 2017 to 2022
|
Year |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 (As of 9/6/22) |
|
Guns caught |
13 |
16 |
14 |
10 |
30 |
15 |
Bringing a gun to an airport checkpoint carries a federal civil penalty because TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint. Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane. The complete list of civil penalties is posted online. Additionally, if a traveler with a gun is a member of TSA PreCheck®, that individual will lose their TSA PreCheck privileges.
Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality and passengers should do their homework to make sure that they are not violating any local firearm laws. Travelers should also contact their airline as they may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.
Nationwide, TSA officers detected 5,972 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year. Of the guns caught by TSA in 2021, about 86 percent were loaded.