Transportation Security Administration confiscates 8th firearm at Reagan National Airport this year

Transportation Security Administration officials at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport stopped a Fredericksburg man from bringing a firearm onto his flight Friday.

The man, who was toting a .25 caliber handgun loaded with seven bullets, told agents he had forgotten the gun was in his luggage. Friday’s seizure marks the eighth such confiscation of a firearm by airport authorities in 2023.

Passengers packing heat continues to be a problem for TSA, with a record-breaking 6,425 firearms seized at airport checkpoints in 2022, with 88% of those guns loaded at the time. In response, authorities raised the maximum civil penalty for a gun citation at the airport to $14,950.

At Reagan National Airport specifically, one less gun was seized in 2022, with 29 firearms taken, as compared to 2021, which saw 30 firearms taken. Both numbers, however, more than double the 14 guns confiscated in 2019.