ARLINGTON, VA — If a Transportation Security Administration officer finds a handgun in your carry-on bag, “I forgot it was there,” is not a valid excuse, according to John Busch, TSA’s federal security director at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington.
“Bringing a gun to one of our checkpoints is something that we take very seriously,” he said.
On Thursday, TSA officers stopped an Edgewater, Maryland from bringing a handgun onto a flight leaving from the airport in Arlington. She told the officers that she had been cleaning the loaded 9mm handgun they found in her carry-on bag and had forgotten that she put it inside a food bag containing her lunch. The firearm took up about half of her lunch bag, according to the TSA.
This was the fourth firearm TSA officers discovered among a traveler’s carry-on items at the airport in seven days. The three other guns were found on April 5, 7 and 8.
“It is troubling to see four guns within a week,” Busch said. “Responsible gun owners know where their firearms are at all times and this trend is very concerning. All of our recent incidents involved travelers who said, ‘I forgot it was in the bag,’ which means they were carelessly and unwittingly carting a loaded, unsecured weapon with them. This is unacceptable and can have grave consequences at our security checkpoints. I want everyone to know that traveling with a firearm is allowed but only if done the right way. It must be unloaded and packed properly as checked baggage and declared to the airline at the ticket counter. I urge travelers to know the contents of their carry-on bags to ensure that they have nothing prohibited or illegal.”
The woman involved in Thursday’s incident had her handgun confiscated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police, who also cited her on a weapons charge. She now faces up to $15,000 in penalties.
People are allowed to travel with their handguns, but the handguns must be properly stored in their checked baggage and declared at check-in. In addition, handguns must be stored and unloaded in a hard-locked case, with ammunition stored separately. The hard-locked case must be brought to the airline check-in window, where it will be checked with the traveler’s baggage. TSA has more information available online for people traveling with firearms.
Including the handgun found on Thursday, TSA officers detected a total of 14 firearms at Reagan National Airport in 2024. Thirty-nine firearms were stopped at the airport in 2023, 10 more than the previous year.
