Two men were caught with handguns at Virginia’s Dulles International Airport’s security checkpoints this week.
A man from Pennsylvania was caught with a loaded handgun at one of the airport’s security checkpoints on Thursday while attempting to get onto a flight, the Transportation Security Administration said in a news release.
Officials with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department took the 9 mm handgun loaded with 15 bullets from the man. He was cited on a weapons charge, the TSA said.
The man, who claimed that he didn’t know he had his gun with him, could see a penalty of up to $15,000 for bringing a gun to an airport checkpoint.
“Two guns caught in a three-day span says a lot about the continued vigilance of our TSA officers,” Scott T. Johnson, TSA’s federal security director for the airport, said in a statement. “Claiming that you forgot that you had a loaded gun with you is a tragic accident waiting to happen. There is no excuse for bringing a gun to the checkpoint.”
On November 27, a man from Hagerstown, Maryland, tried to bring a 9mm handgun loaded with 15 bullets, including one in the chamber, through a security checkpoint, according to the TSA. The authority said that there were also 12 additional bullets packed with it.
The gun was confiscated and the man also faces a civil penalty of up to $15,000.
According to a news release, 23 handguns have been captured at Dulles security checkpoints this year.
Those who are traveling by plane can bring their firearms inside a checked luggage. But it has to be approved by the TSA.
Over 6,000 guns were detected at airport security checkpoints throughout the country, the TSA said.
Just last week, Reagan National Airport set a new record for number of guns caught at security checkpoints after a Maryland woman was caught with a loaded handgun at one of the airport’s security checkpoints during Thanksgiving travel.
