Alexandria Woman's Loaded Handgun Detected At Reagan National Airport

ARLINGTON, VA— An Alexandria woman was prevented from bringing a loaded handgun onto her flight Tuesday morning at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

TSA officers detected the .380 caliber gun loaded with six bullets among the woman’s carry-on items. When the officers spotted the loaded gun, they notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police, who confiscated the weapon and cited the woman on weapons charges, the TSA said in a news release Tuesday.

The woman told officers she had forgotten that she had brought the loaded gun with her.

The incident comes less than a week after two other Alexandria residents tried to bring handguns onto their flights at Reagan National Airport. Last Thursday morning, an Alexandria woman was stopped with her .380 caliber gun among her carry-on items. It was not loaded.

Later in the afternoon last Thursday, an Alexandria man was stopped with a 9mm handgun loaded with 14 bullets, including one in the chamber. He also had an additional 14 bullets among three gun magazines. The two incidents were not related, the TSA said.

A day earlier, on Sept. 28, a Lorton man was stopped from bringing a loaded handgun onto a flight leaving Reagan National Airport, the TSA said. The handgun was loaded with six bullets.

The firearm detected on Tuesday was the 24th gun that TSA officers at Reagan National Airport had prevented from being carried onto a flight in 2022, only six fewer guns detected than in all of 2021, according to the TSA.

Travelers can transport a firearm on a flight as long as it is unloaded, packed in a locked hard-sided case and declared as checked baggage with the airline as described on the TSA website.

Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances. This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits because even though someone may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane, the TSA said.

Nationwide, TSA officers detected 5,972 firearms on passengers or in their carry-on bags at checkpoints in 2021. Of the guns caught by TSA in 2021, about 86 percent were loaded.

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