Alexandria Man's Loaded Handgun Confiscated At Reagan National Airport

ARLINGTON, VA — An Alexandria man was stopped from bringing a loaded handgun onto his flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Thursday morning, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The 9mm caliber gun, loaded with 15 bullets, was found in the man’s carry-on bag as he went through a security checkpoint at the airport.

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police confiscated the gun and arrested the man on a weapons charge and released him on a summons. He told officials that he forgot that he had his gun with him, the TSA said.

In addition to the citation by airport police, this man now faces a financial civil penalty; penalties for carrying a weapon were recently increased to a maximum of $15,000, according to the TSA.

The gun was the 9th firearm confiscated so far in 2023 by security officers at Reagan National Airport in Arlington. In 2022, 29 guns were confiscated at the airport and a record 30 guns were confiscated in 2021.

“Guns are not permitted through any airport security checkpoint,” said John Busch, TSA’s federal security director for Reagan National Airport. “Our officers are well-trained and vigilant and this is the ninth handgun that they have prevented from getting onto a flight here at Reagan National Airport so far this year.”

Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only in checked baggage if they are unloaded and packed in a hard-sided locked case. Then the locked case should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared

In 2022, 6,542 firearms were caught at 262 out of 430 airport security checkpoints nationwide. Eighty-eight percent of those guns were loaded, according to the TSA.

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