Virginia Man Arrested At BWI Airport After Caught With Gun At TSA Checkpoint
LINTHICUM, Md. (WJZ) — A Fairfax County man was arrested Friday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport after TSA officers caught him with a handgun in his carry-on bag.
This marks the 11th handgun caught by TSA so far in 2019, already half of the number stopped during all of 2018 when TSA officers caught 22 firearms at the airport checkpoints.
Friday's gun catch, a 9 mm handgdun, was not loaded, TSA officials said.
A TSA officer spotted the handgun in the checkpoint X-ray machine, contacted the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, who arrived at the checkpoint, confiscated the gun and detained him for questioning before arresting the man who was from Reston, Virginia, on a state weapons charge.
4,239 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging at about 11.6 firearms per day, a 7 percent increase nationally in firearm discoveries from the total of 3,957 detected in 2017.
86 percent of firearms detected at checkpoints in 2018 were loaded and nearly 34 percent had a bullet in the chamber.
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