Two Tennessee men at two different D.C.-area airports were stopped from bringing handguns onto their flights over the weekend, the Transportation Security Administration said.
On Saturday, officers stopped a Tennessee man from bringing his .40 caliber gun onto a flight from Reagan National Airport. The gun wasn’t loaded, but TSA officers also found two loaded gun magazines with 19 bullets.
The handgun was detected at the security checkpoint when the X-ray unit alerted to the man’s carry-on bag. The bag was searched, and the weapon was confiscated by a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police officer.
The man was cited on a weapons charge. It was the 11th firearm caught at Reagan National checkpoints this year, according to TSA data.
Then, on Sunday, another man from Tennessee was stopped from bringing his .380 caliber handgun onto a flight from Dulles International Airport. TSA said that gun was loaded with six bullets, with an additional seven bullets packed in a gun magazine.
Just like in the incident at Reagan National, the handgun was detected at the security checkpoint. The man told officials that he forgot he had the weapon with him. He also received a weapons charge.
Both men are also facing stiff civil penalties of up to $15,000.
So far this year, seven firearms have been caught at Dulles checkpoints, according to TSA data. In January, an Alexandria, Virginia, man was stopped from bring his 9mm handgun with 10 bullets onto a flight from Dulles.
“It is unfortunate that we continue to see travelers carrying their firearms and ammunition to the security checkpoint here at Reagan National Airport and airports across the country,” John Busch, TSA’s Federal Security Director for the airport, said in a news release. “It has been decades — long before TSA existed — that a regulation has been in place that prohibits passengers from possessing firearms during a flight.”
Firearms are not permitted to go through security checkpoints because passengers should not have access to them during flights, even if they have concealed carry permits or are enrolled in TSA Precheck, the TSA says.
Last year, TSA discovered more than 6,500 firearms at airport security checkpoints across the country — 88% of them were loaded.
