DULLES, Va. — A Camp Hill man was cited for attempting to bring a loaded handgun onto a flight.
The man attempted to bring the 9mm handgun loaded with eight bullets onto his Monday, Nov. 28 flight at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).
The weapon was caught as the Cumberland County man entered the security checkpoint. An X-ray unit alerted the TSA officer who was staffing the monitor to take a closer look at the contents of the bag.
TSA officials notified the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police who confiscated the gun and cited the man on a weapons charge.
“With the Thanksgiving holiday travel season behind us, our TSA officers remain focused on their mission to continue to stop weapons from being carried through our security checkpoints,” said Scott T. Johnson, TSA Federal Security Director for the airport.
Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at their airline ticket counter. They must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided locked case, and packed separately from ammunition. The locked case should then be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.
Bringing a gun to an airport checkpoint carries a federal civil penalty due to TSA reserving the right to issue civil penalties to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at checkpoints.
Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch into thousands of dollars, depending on mitigating circumstances.
This applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits; even though an individual may have a concealed carry permit, it does not allow for a firearm to be carried onto an airplane.
Nationwide, TSA officers detected 5,972 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year. Of the guns caught by TSA in 2021, about 86% were loaded.
Unsure if an item should be packed in a carry-on bag, checked bag, either or neither? Travelers can download the myTSA app, which has a “What can I bring?” feature that allows users to type in the item to find out if it can fly.
