Henrico man charged after bringing antique revolver to RIC checkpoint
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Richmond International Airport Police arrested a Henrico man who was attempting to board a flight at the airport March 11 with an antique revolver.
Transportation Security Administration officials detected the .22-caliber handgun, which was in the man's carry-on bag, through X-rays at a security checkpoint. The man faces a civil penalty of up to $15,000 for attempting to carry the weapon onto the plane.
It was the fourth gun stopped by airport police at a security checkpoint this year – and the second in five days – following 17 such occurrences last year.
“I’d expect to see a gun like this in a western movie, but alas a traveler brought this antique firearm to the checkpoint this morning," said Robin "Chuck" Burke, TSA’s federal security director for the airport. "It’s an actual functioning deadly weapon and as such needs to be packed like any other gun."
To declare legally registered firearms at the airline check-in counter, they must be unloaded and packed in a checked hard-sided case, then declared before the flight takes off.
