TSA Officers Prevent Local Woman from Bringing Loaded Gun onto Plane
Transportation Security Administration officers at Virginia's Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stopped a local woman from bringing a loaded gun onto a plane Christmas Eve, according to a Tuesday news release from the TSA.
The firearm was detected on an X-ray machine as the woman reached the security checkpoint, whose unit alerted the TSA to take a look inside the traveler's carry-on bag. The gun was then confiscated and the woman was cited on a weapons charge.
"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."
Busch said that the woman faces a potential civil penalty of thousands of dollars. Fines for carrying weapons can be as much as $15,000.
In 2023, a total of 39 firearms have been confiscated at Reagan National Airport, setting a new record for the most firearms confiscated in a single year. This surpasses the previous record of 30 firearms confiscated in 2021.
In October, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released third-quarter data revealing an increase in travelers attempting to bring loaded firearms through airport security checkpoints. The TSA is anticipating that the number of firearms intercepted in 2023 will exceed last year's record of over 6,500.
