VA Woman Stopped From Bringing Handgun, Ammunition Onto Flight Leaving Dulles Airport

DULLES, VA — A woman from Marshall, Virginia was stopped by a Transportation Security Officer from bringing a handgun and ammunition onto a flight leaving Washington Dulles International Airport on Friday, according to a release.

After an X-ray machine at a TSA checkpoint detected a 9mm handgun and gun magazine inside the woman's carry-on bag, TSA officials alert the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police. They confiscated the woman and cited her on a weapons charge, according to authorities.

“Carrying a gun to an airport security checkpoint is a serious offense,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s federal security director for the airport, in a release. “Passengers are not to have access to a gun during a flight. Responsible gun owners know the right way to transport a firearm for a flight. Now this woman faces a stiff federal financial penalty.”

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.

The handgun found by the TSA was the seventh handgun to be confiscated at the airport since the beginning of the year.

Firearms caught at IAD checkpoints from 2017 to 2022:

• 2017 -13
• 2018-16
• 2019-14
• 2020-10*
• 2021-30*
• 2022-7

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