Virginia woman arrested by police after trying to bring loaded gun onto Richmond flight
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A Virginia woman was arrested by police June 9 after Transportation Security Administration officers at Richmond International Airport caught her with a loaded handgun in her carry-on bag. The 9mm handgun was loaded with four bullets.
It was the second gun TSA officers detected at the airport this week and the eighth handgun that TSA officers have caught at the security checkpoint this year, following 20 such occurrences last year.
TSA officers stopped the Brodnax, Va., woman when her carry-on bag triggered an alarm in the security checkpoint X-ray unit. Upon spotting the weapon, TSA alerted airport police, who responded to the checkpoint, confiscated the handgun and arrested the woman on a weapons violation. She told officials that she was unaware that there was a gun among her carry-on items and said the gun did not belong to her. She then said that she thought perhaps her husband placed the gun in her bag.
TSA has the right to issue civil penalties to travelers who have guns and gun parts with them at a checkpoint. Civil penalties for bringing a handgun into a checkpoint can stretch to thousands of dollars, depending upon the circumstances. Penalties apply to people with or without concealed gun carry permits, because those permits do not allow firearms to be brought onto planes.
A complete list of civil penalties is posted online.
TSA PreCheck members who incur the penalties also will lose their PreCheck privileges.
TSA has details on how to properly travel with a firearm posted on its website. Travelers also should contact their airlines, which may have additional requirements for traveling with firearms and ammunition.
