TSA Officer Finds Loaded Handgun In Traveler's Carry-On Items At DC Airport

ARLINGTON, VA — A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer stopped a West Virginia man from bringing a loaded handgun onto a flight leaving from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) early Tuesday morning, according to a TSA release.

The TSA officer detected the .40 caliber gun while searching the Bunker Hill, West Virginia man's carry-on items at a DCA checkpoint. TSA notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police. They confiscated the gun, which was filled with eight bullets including one in the chamber, and cited the man on a weapons charge.

“If you own a firearm and you are planning to take a flight, it is important to know some important facts about transporting your gun for a flight,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s federal security director for DCA, in a release.

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. The locked case must be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.

Tuesday's incident was the fifth time TSA officers have stopped a gun this year at a DCA checkpoint.

Firearms caught at DCA checkpoints from 2017 to 2022:

• 2017 -13
• 2018-16
• 2019-14
• 2020-10*
• 2021-30*
• 2022-5*

* Fewer flights left from the airport due to the pandemic.

Related:

4th Gun Of 2022 Stopped By TSA At National Airport Checkpoint

Handgun Confiscated From Passenger's Carry-On Bag At DC Airport