5th Gun Of 2022 Stopped By TSA At Washington National Airport

Arlington VA

01 February, 2022

3:08 PM

Description

ARLINGTON, VA — A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer stopped a West Virginia man from bringing a loaded handgun onto a flight leaving from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) early Tuesday morning, according to a TSA release. The TSA officer detected the .40 caliber gun while searching the Bunker Hill, West Virginia man's carry-on items at a DCA checkpoint. TSA notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police. They confiscated the gun, which was filled with eight bullets including one in the chamber, and cited the man on a weapons charge. "If you own a firearm and you are planning to take a flight, it is important to know some important facts about transporting your gun for a flight," said Scott T. Johnson, TSA's federal security director for DCA, in a release. 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. Tuesday's incident was the fifth time TSA officers have stopped a gun this year at a DCA checkpoint. Firearms caught at DCA checkpoints from 2017 to 2022: 2017 -13 2018-162019-142020-10*2021-30*2022-5* * Fewer flights left from the airport due to the pandemic. Related: 4th Gun Of 2022 Stopped By TSA At National Airport Checkpoint Handgun Confiscated From Passenger's Carry-On Bag At DC Airport This ammunition was confiscated from a West Virginia's carry-on bag Tuesday morning at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (TSA)