LINTHICUM, Md. — The 15th gun of 2019 was confiscated from a traveler at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport Tuesday, the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.
TSA agents spotted a 9mm semi-automatic handgun loaded with 16 bullets, including one in the chamber, in the carry-on luggage of a Glen Burnie man as his bags passed through an X-ray machine at a security checkpoint in the airport. The agents contacted Maryland Transportation Authority Police, who arrived at the checkpoint to confiscate the weapon and detain the man for questioning, eventually citing him on weapons charges but allowing him to catch his flight. The man said he normally carries the gun for work but forgot he still had the loaded weapon on him.
The gun is the third such weapon confiscated in a 10-day period that began May 24, when a Pasadena man was stopped for carrying a loaded weapon. The next day a Glen Burnie woman was stopped for a similar violation.
BWI is on pace to confiscate more than 30 weapons at security gates this year, far surpassing the 22 guns found on passengers last year. Nationally, gun confiscations at airports went up 7 percent from 2017 to 2018, with 3,957 weapons found in the year, 34 percent of which were loaded, the TSA said.
