Newport News, Va. – A Newport News man was cited with a weapons charge after carrying a firearm past security checkpoints at the Newport News/ Williamsburg International Airport on Tuesday.
Transportation Security Administration officers stopped the man after detecting the .22 caliber firearm in the man’s carry-on bag as it passed through the X-ray machine while the man was going through security.
TSA officers immediately contacted the Peninsula Airport Commission Department of Public Safety, who responded and confiscated the firearm. The man was cited on a state charge. He was ticketed to fly to Atlanta.
The incident did not impact airport operations.
In 2013, TSA officers detected 1,815 guns in carry-on bags nationwide. Already this year more than 1,900 guns have been detected by TSA officers at checkpoints across the country.
