Washington Airport Screeners Seize Passenger's Gun With 13 Bullets - Security Agency

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2021) Officers at the Ronald Reagan Airport in the US capital prevented a passenger ticketed for an outbound flight from boarding with a loaded handgun with 13 bullets, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said on Tuesday.

"When the gun was spotted in the X-ray machine, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police were alerted. The police confiscated the gun and cited the man on a weapons charge," the TSA said in a press release.

Seizures of guns from US airline passengers attempting to board aircraft have increased during the coronavirus pandemic, the release said.

For example, TSA officers detected 3,257 firearms on passengers or their carry-on bags at checkpoints last year, although the total number of passengers screened at airport checkpoints across the country fell by 500 million compared to 2019 due to the pandemic, the release added.

In 2020, TSA caught approximately ten firearms per million passengers as compared to about five firearms per million passengers in 2019.� Of the guns caught by TSA in 2020, about 83 percent were loaded, according to the release.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right of Americans to keep and bear arms.