Transportation Security Administration officers at Reagan National Airport stopped a Gambrills, Maryland, man from boarding his flight Monday because he had a loaded gun.
According to a , the man had a 9 mm handgun loaded with 10 bullets.
鈥淲e have seen more guns caught at our checkpoints so far this year than the total number we stopped in 2019 and 2020 combined,鈥� said Scott T. Johnson, TSA federal security director for the airport.
鈥淚f you own a firearm, stop and think about it for a moment before bringing it to the airport. Guns and airports don鈥檛 mix. It鈥檚 nothing new. Guns have been prohibited from being carried onto airplanes for decades.鈥�
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police confiscated the gun — which was spotted in an X-ray machine — and cited the man.
Information on how to properly travel with a firearm is posted on the TSA .
Firearms caught at the Reagan National Airport checkpoints, 2017 to 2021, per the TSA:
| Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020*听 | 2021* |
| Guns caught | 13 | 16 | 14 | 10 | 27 |
*There were significantly fewer passengers than previous years due to the pandemic.
