Don’t stop me, even if you’ve heard this one before: A man was cited Thursday at Reagan National Airport after security officials found a loaded gun in his carry-on bag.
The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Friday that the man, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, brought a .25 caliber gun with five bullets in his bag. The X-ray machine detected the gun; the TSA officials told the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police, who confiscated it and cited the man.
No, you haven’t accidentally clicked on a story from last December, last November, last September, last August, that other time last August, last July, that other time last July or that other other time last July. It just happens ridiculously often at airports in the D.C. area, and in fact nationwide.
The TSA said 13 guns were caught at Reagan National Airport alone in 2017, 16 in 2018 and 14 in 2019. The number went down to 10 in 2019 — only because so few people flew during the early phases of the pandemic — before rebounding to a whopping 30 last year, and eight already so far this year. That’s on top of 23 at BWI Marshall Airport last year, and 19 at Dulles International Airport.
Nationwide, the TSA found 5,972 guns, 86% of which were loaded, at airport checkpoints last year, up from 3,257 in 2020 and 4,432 in 2019.
This is not complicated: You can’t bring a gun, or gun parts for that matter, onto a plane unless it’s in a checked bag and it’s properly declared at the ticket counter — even if you have a concealed carry permit. The civil penalties run into the thousands of dollars, the TSA said, and depending on where you are there might be criminal penalties too.
John Busch, the federal security director for the airport, has a suggestion for those who still might find this a challenge: Don’t just think about where your gun isn’t, see where it is.
“I strongly recommend that any traveler who owns a personal firearm positively confirm where it is stored before departing from home,” Busch said in the statement. Before leaving for the airport, “find the weapon and see that it is safely secured, this will help ensure that it is not unwittingly stored in a carry-on item.”
Solid advice, it would seem.
See you next time.
