TSA officers prevent local woman from bringing loaded gun onto flight at Reagan National Airport on Christmas Eve.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stopped a Bethesda, Md., woman from carrying her handgun onto a flight on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24.
The 9mm gun was loaded with six bullets when the TSA officers detected the weapon among the woman’s carry-on items.
It marked the 39th gun that TSA officers at the airport have detected at the checkpoints so far this year, which is the most guns caught in a single year and follows a national trend in seeing a spike in the number of travelers who are bringing guns to airport checkpoints across the country. The previous high number of firearms stopped at the airport in a single year was 30, which took place in 2021.
The gun was detected as the woman entered the security checkpoint. The X-ray unit alerted the TSA to take a closer look inside the carry-on bag. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police confiscated the gun and cited the individual on a weapons charge.
Guns are not permitted through the security checkpoint and the woman now faces a stiff financial civil penalty from TSA. The penalty for carrying weapons can reach a maximum of $15,000.
“Bringing a gun to an airport security checkpoint was no way to enter the holiday,” said John Busch, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport. “There’s naughty and there’s nice at this time of year and the nice way to transport your firearm is to make sure it is unloaded, locked in a hard-sided case and declared at your airline check-in counter. The naughty way is to bring it to a checkpoint. This traveler was cited by the police and will likely receive a federal civil penalty of thousands of dollars. Responsible gun owners know where their guns are at all times and they know not to bring them to an airport checkpoint.”
