WASHINGTON — On April 22, Transportation Security Administration officers at Washington Dulles International Airport prevented a Fairfax County man from bringing a loaded .40 caliber handgun onto a flight.
According to TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein, “the gun was loaded with 10 bullets.”
In a statement, TSA said the Annandale resident was stopped at the checkpoint with the firearm, and was cited by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police on weapons charges.
The TSA officer who was staffing the checkpoint X-ray machine detected the handgun as it passed along the conveyor belt inside the man’s carry-on bag.
The next day, the same thing happened at Baltimore Washington International-Thurgood Marshall Airport. On that occasion, a Frederick, Maryland, woman was arrested after TSA officers caught her trying to carry a loaded gun past a security checkpoint.
That weapon, Farbstein said, was a 9 mm handgun loaded with seven bullets.
TSA personnel routinely stop people with dangerous weapons in their carry-on luggage inside airports.
“We’ve got a 9 [or] 10-inch cleaver that you would see in a kitchen,” Farbstein said during a demonstration of prohibited items at Reagan National Airport on Friday.
Also on display was what Farbstein called “a sword cane — the sword is concealed right inside the cane.”
Another item in the same category included, “a book that says Ninja on the cover — a ninja warrior book that somebody cleverly cut out a hole in the middle of the book and inserted two ninja throwing knives,” Farbstein said.
Some of the clearly dangerous items confiscated prompt authorities to wonder why they were packed in carry-on luggage.
But some of the items leave no doubt about the motive — like a laptop, she demonstrated.
“This specific laptop has been altered and the battery pack has been removed and replaced with some explosives,” Farbstein said.
TSA is urging travelers to think carefully about what they packed in their carry-on before arriving at the airport, especially when it comes to firearms.
“What happens is we have to stop that line, wait for the police to come, police take it out of the x-ray machine, they make a determination as to whether it’s real or it’s a replica and you can be arrested.”
For tips on what’s permitted and what’s not, TSA has a feature on its homepage called “When I Fly Can I Bring My.”
