VA Man With 9mm Handgun Stopped By Security At Reagan National Airport

ARLINGTON, VA — Security officials prevented a Virginia man from bringing a loaded handgun onto a flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Durley Jan Felder II, 34, of Lynchburg had a 9mm handgun that was loaded with 10 bullets and was packed in a knapsack alongside a gun magazine loaded with additional ammunition when he tried to go through security at Reagan National Airport, the TSA said.

An X-ray unit alerted the TSA to take a closer look inside Felder’s bag. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police then confiscated Felder’s gun and cited him on a weapons charge.

Felder told officials that he keeps his firearm in his work backpack, and he planned to work during his trip and forgot that he had it with him, the TSA said.

The gun in Felder’s bag was the 32nd gun that officers at Reagan National Airport have detected at one of the airport’s checkpoints so far this year, which is the most guns caught in a single year and follows a national trend in seeing a spike in the number of travelers who are bringing guns to airport checkpoints across the country.

The penalty for carrying weapons can reach a maximum of $15,000.

“There is no excuse for bringing a gun to the checkpoint,” said John Busch, the TSA’s federal security director for the airport. “Incidents such as this are dangerous and disrupt our screening operations for all travelers.”

Passengers are only permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage. Firearms must be unloaded then packed in a hard-sided locked case. The locked case must be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.