TSA Stops MD Man From Bringing Loaded Handgun Onto Plane At Reagan National Airport

ARLINGTON, VA — A Maryland man was stopped from bringing a loaded handgun onto a flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington on Monday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The man, from Gambrills, Maryland, tried to bring a 9mm handgun loaded with 10 bullets onto his flight.

“We have seen more guns caught at our checkpoints so far this year than the total number we stopped in 2019 and 2020 combined,” Scott T. Johnson, TSA federal security director at Reagan National Airport, said in a statement Tuesday. “If you own a firearm, stop and think about it for a moment before bringing it to the airport.”

“It's nothing new. Guns have been prohibited from being carried onto airplanes for decades,” Johnson said.

When the gun was spotted in the X-ray machine, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police were alerted. The police confiscated the gun and cited the man.

So far in 2021, TSA agents have confiscated 27 guns on passengers at checkpoints at Reagan National Airport, compared to 10 in 2020 and 14 in 2019.

Nationwide, TSA officers detected 3,257 firearms on passengers or in their carry-on bags at checkpoints in 2020, although the total number of passengers screened at airport checkpoints across the country fell by 500 million compared to 2019 due to the pandemic.

The result was that twice as many firearms per million passengers screened were detected at checkpoints in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2020, TSA caught approximately 10 firearms per million passengers as compared to about five firearms per million passengers in 2019. Of the guns caught by TSA in 2020, about 83 percent were loaded.

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 should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.

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 total thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though a person may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane, the TSA said.

RELATED:

• 19th Handgun Of 2021 Confiscated At Reagan National Airport
• 9mm Handgun Confiscated From VA Man At Washington Dulles Airport