VA Man Stopped From Bringing Loaded Gun On Flight At Reagan National

ARLINGTON, VA — Armed people from the D.C. area keep trying to bring loaded guns onto flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, but Transportation Security Administration officers keep stopping them.

On Wednesday, a Fauquier County man was prevented by TSA officers from bringing a 9mm gun loaded with eight bullets, including one in the chamber, onto a flight at Reagan National Airport. The loaded gun was detected among the man’s carry-on items.

When a TSA officer spotted the firearm, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police were notified. Police confiscated the weapon and cited the man, a resident of Warrenton, on weapons charges, the TSA said.

This was the 25th gun that TSA officers have prevented from being carried onto a flight at Reagan National Airport so far in 2022. In 2021, TSA officers stopped people from bringing 30 guns onto flights at the airport.

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

“While I appreciate the remarkable work our TSA officers do every day to safeguard the aviation system, it is important to remind all gun owners, regardless of their having a permit, that they are forbidden from carrying their firearm onto a flight,” John Busch, TSA’s federal security director for the airport, said in a statement Thursday. “Travelers who bring firearms to airport checkpoints face a stiff federal financial penalty.”

Travelers can transport firearms on planes as long as they are unloaded, packed in a locked hard-sided case and declared as checked baggage with the airline as described on the TSA website.

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