Alexandria Man Faces Weapons Charge After Handgun Is Found In His Bag At DC Airport

ARLINGTON, VA — An Alexandria man is facing a weapons charge after a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer found a handgun in his carry-on baggage Saturday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), according to a TSA alert.

The man was on his way to board a flight at DCA, when a TSA officer discovered the unloaded gun while searching the man's baggage at a DCA checkpoint. The officer contact the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police, who took the gun and cited the man on a weapons charge.

“It has not been a good start to the new year for each individual who has been caught carrying a handgun to our checkpoints,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s federal security director at DCA, in a release. “Each individual faces a stiff financial civil penalty that could stretch into thousands of dollars. My advice to firearm owners who want to transport their guns is to familiarize yourself with the proper way pack a gun for a flight. That information is readily available on the TSA web site. Doing so is simply part of being a responsible gun owner.”

Related: 2 Florida Men With Guns Stopped By TSA Officers At DC Airport

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.

Saturday's incident is the third time this year that TSA officers have stopped passengers from bringing firearms onto flights leaving DCA.

Firearms caught at DCA checkpoints from 2017 to 2022:

• 2017 -13
• 2018-16
• 2019-14
• 2020-10
• 2021-30
• 2022-3