LINTHICUM, Md. — Transportation Security Administration officers confiscated their sixth gun of the 2019 Thursday, a day after announcing 22 guns were confiscated in 2018, a slightly lower mark than the year prior.
A loaded gun was found in the carry-on luggage of a Gettysburg, Pa. man, the TSA said in a release. The gun was spotted while the man’s baggage passed through a checkpoint X-ray. TSA officers notified Maryland Transportation Authority Police, who arrested the man and confiscated the weapon, a .380 caliber handgun loaded with six bullets.
The man said he forgot that he had the loaded gun with him, the TSA said. He faces state weapons charges. Bringing a gun through airport security carries both potential criminal charges and civil penalties ranging from $3,900 to $13,000.
While BWI saw four fewer guns seized at security checkpoints in 2018 than in 2017, nationally gun seizures at airports rose by about 7 percent, the TSA said in a statement released Thursday. With six weapons seized through the first six weeks of 2019, a continuation of this trend would yield more than 50 guns found by security by the end of the year.
