Loaded Gun Carried By Prince George's Man Confiscated By TSA At DCA Checkpoint

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A Prince George's County man tried passing through a security checkpoint at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with a loaded .45 caliber gun that was detected in an X-ray machine. The Capitol Heights man was entering the security checkpoint with his carry-on items.

This was the 11th gun detected by a Transportation Security Administration officer at the airport so far this year. The gun was loaded with 10 bullets. The TSA officer alerted the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police who confiscated the gun and cited the man on weapons charge.

“Bringing a loaded gun to a TSA security checkpoint is an accident waiting to happen,” John Busch, TSA’s federal security director for the airport, said. “Guns, ammunition and security checkpoints don’t mix. If you want to travel with your firearm, all you need to do is make sure it is unloaded and packed in a locked hard-sided case that you hand deliver to your airline check-in counter to declare that you want to fly with it. The airline representative will make sure it is transported in the belly of the aircraft so that nobody has access to it during the flight.”

Passengers are allowed to travel with firearms only in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter. TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website.

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 cost 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.

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 2022, an estimated 86 percent were loaded.