Passenger at RIC stopped with gun

For the 13th time already this year, Transportation Security Administration officers at Richmond International Airport stopped a passenger with a gun – something that happened only 14 times each of the past two years.

Officers stopped a Warrenton man from carrying a .380 caliber handgun onto an airplane at RIC Sept. 3. It was loaded with six bullets, and the man also had an additional magazine with six more bullets.

TSA officials detected the gun in the man’s carry-on bag. They immediately alerted the airport police, who responded to the checkpoint, confiscated the weapon and detained the man for questioning before issuing him a summons with a court date as a result of the incident.

“Guns are prohibited in the cabins of airplanes. It’s nothing new. It is a law that has been in place long before TSA even existed,” said Chuck Burke, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Richmond International Airport. “Our officers have caught 13 guns so far this year compared to 14 during all 12 months of 2019. Considering the fact that there are about 75 to 80 percent fewer passengers flying due to the pandemic, it’s not a pretty picture. Actually, it is an extremely disturbing trend.”

TSA reserves the right to issue a civil penalty to travelers who have guns with them at a checkpoint. A typical first offense for carrying a loaded handgun into a checkpoint is $4,100 and can go as high as $13,669 depending on any mitigating circumstances.

That applies to travelers with or without concealed gun carry permits, because no one is allowed to carry a firearm onto an airplane.

Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared at the airline check-in counter. Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked and packed separately from ammunition. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should check for firearm laws in the jurisdictions they are flying to and from.

Nationwide last year, 4,432 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging about 12.1 firearms per day, approximately a 5% increase nationally in firearm discoveries from the total of 4,239 detected in 2018. Eighty-seven percent of firearms detected at checkpoints last year were loaded.