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TSA officers at Washington Dulles International Airport were able to catch a Tennessee man from bringing a loaded .380 caliber handgun with six bullets and an additional seven bullets that were packed in a magazine alongside the weapon.
The incident was reported on Sunday, April 16, one day after a similar scene played out at Reagan National Airport, also involving a traveler from Tennessee.
Officials say that the firearm was caught at a security checkpoint as his checkout bag went through the X-ray machine. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police were called and confiscated the gun.
The man stated that he forgot he had the loaded gun with him. He was cited on the gun charge and faces a penalty of up to $15,000.
John Busch, TSA’s Federal Security Director at Reagan National Airport said that travelers can still fly with their weapons, but only in checked bags, if they are unloaded and packed in a hard-sided locked case.
Those cases should then be taken to the airline’s check-in counter and declared as a precaution.
“The spring travel season is here and our security checkpoint lanes are very busy,” Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s Federal Security Director Dulles International said. “Our TSA officers are good at detecting prohibited and illegal items to ensure they are not carried onto a flight, and I’m grateful that our officers here at Dulles and nationwide are focused on the mission.
“I hope that this incident will serve as a reminder to others who own a firearm, to refresh their familiarity with the proper procedures on how to pack a gun for a flight,” he continued. “Firearms should never be brought to the security checkpoint in carry-on luggage.”
The number of firearms recovered by TSA officers at Dulles International Airport have been on the rise in recent years, up from seven as recently in 2020, up to 19 in 2021, and 25 in 2022. This year there have already been seven weapons seized.
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