Loudoun Man Cited For Bringing Loaded Gun To Airport Checkpoint

DULLES, VA — A Bluemont man is facing a weapons charge after a Transportation Security Administration officer stopped him from bringing a loaded gun onto a flight leaving Washington Dulles International Airport on Tuesday, according to a TSA release.

As the man entered a security checkpoint, a TSA officer using an x-ray machine discovered a 9mm handgun in the man's carry-on items. TSA notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police, who confiscated the gun, which was loaded with 12 bullets, and cited the man on a weapons charge, according to the release.

“Carrying a loaded gun to an airport is an accident waiting to happen,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s federal security director for the airport, in a release. “Responsible gun owners know the right way to transport a firearm for a flight and it starts with ensuring that it is not loaded.”

The handgun found by the TSA was the 13th 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*
• 2022-13

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

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.