There are more than two months left in 2019, but the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday that travelers at BWI Marshall Airport have already tied a dubious record.
On Oct. 19, an Annapolis, Maryland, man was found to have a 9mm semi-automatic handgun loaded with 15 bullets in his carry-on bag at the airport. That’s the 26th gun caught in the security line at BWI, the TSA said in a statement Tuesday, tying the record set in 2017.
“The man told officials that he forgot that he had his loaded semi-automatic handgun with him,” the TSA said, making their implication clear even through the bureaucratic understatement.
In a perhaps-not-surprising development, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police didn’t buy the man’s excuse, and arrested him on weapons charges.
The BWI Marshall record was set in 2017, and the number went down slightly to 22 in 2018. Nationally, however, the number of guns found in carry-on bags went up from 3,957 in 2017 to 4,239 in 2018. The TSA added that 86% of those guns were loaded, and nearly 34% had a bullet in the chamber.
Sigh.
Let’s go through this again: You cannot take a gun to an airport in a carry-on bag.
Not loaded, not unloaded. Not if you have a permit, not if you have a concealed-carry permit, not if your mom packed your bag for you. That other circumstance you just thought up? Nope.
You will probably be arrested and charged; you will probably be fined $4,100 for a first offense – and that’s a civil penalty; there is no trial involved.
You will totally miss your flight, and the TSA agents will shut down the security line, which means everyone in line with you will have to move to another line.
The TSA said in the statement that firearms can only go on aircraft if they’re unloaded and packed in a locked, hard-sided case separate from any ammunition, in checked baggage and if you declare that you’re bringing a gun when you check the case. And that’s just their rules — the airline you’re flying on, and the state you’re traveling from or to, might have more restrictions.
The above paragraph was copy-pasted from last year’s story about people ignoring rules regarding guns, particularly loaded ones, in airports.
See you next year!
