HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — The Transportation Security Administration prevented two men with guns from getting on planes at Richmond International Airport on Monday, according to TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein.
“The initial investigation indicated that the two incidents were unrelated,” she said.
TSA agents found a .38 caliber semi-automatic handgun loaded with seven rounds—including one in the chamber— on a Meherrin man before he boarded a plane to Chicago. The Capital Region Airport Commission Police cited the passenger.
TSA officers caught this loaded .38 semi-automatic handgun at the RIC checkpoint. (PHOTO:Transportation Security Administration)
Later “a Midlothian man was cited on state weapons charges by the Airport Police after TSA officers caught him toting an unloaded .38 caliber revolver,” Farbstein said. “He was ticketed to fly to Atlanta.”
TSA officers caught a second man with this unloaded .38 caliber pistole at the RIC checkpoint. (PHOTO:Transportation Security Administration)
The guns were the fifth and sixth firearms confiscated by TSA agents at RIC this year. TSA agents have found more than 2,000 guns at airport checkpoints across the country in 2014.
In 2013, the TSA seized 1,813 guns, up from 1,556 in 2012 and 1,320 seized in 2011. The agency seized 1,123 guns in 2010, 976 guns in 2009, 926 guns in 2008, 803 guns in 2007 and 821 guns in 2006.
If you need your gun at your final destination, don’t just drop it into your suitcase and check that bag to your mom’s house. Go to www.tsa.gov to find the TSA rules to follow for checking firearms and other weapons. There are also state and local weapons laws that vary by jurisdiction.
And it’s not just about real guns. The TSA doesn’t want you to attempt bring your firearm replicas, special gravy, cranberry sauce or super-special snow globes through passenger screening this December. Check them, ship them ahead of time or consider making your special sauce once you arrive.
Pies and cakes can go through passenger screening but may be subject to secondary screening. And a horror for Santa-believing parents everywhere: Presents may be unwrapped.
CNN wire contributed to this report.
