Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers found a .22 caliber revolver in a man’s carry-on bag at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The revolver appears to be a North American Arms Black Widow .22 Magnum with Boot Clip grips. These are some of the smallest repeating pistols made. They carry five shots of .22 magnum cartridges, as can be seen in the TSA photograph of the pistol, which was discovered on September 21, 2023. From tsa.gov:
A King George, Va., man was cited by police after he was stopped by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers with a loaded handgun at one of the checkpoints at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Thursday, Sept. 21. The .22 caliber pistol was loaded with five bullets and was packed in the man’s carry-on bag.
The gun was caught as the man entered the security checkpoint. The X-ray unit alerted the TSA to take a closer look and inspect the carry-on bag, which was opened by police for a closer inspection. Police confiscated the gun and cited the man on state charges. The man blamed his wife and told officials that she packed his carry-on bag and did not know that he already had his loaded gun inside.
More than 22 million people have concealed carry permits in the United States. Over half the states in the United States have restored permitless carry, where no permit is required to carry a loaded handgun, concealed or openly. Those states have a population of about 150 million people. Roughly 6.6% of the entire population have carry permits, or 8.5% of adults.
In 2022, there were 853 million passenger enplanements in the United States. Assuming 6.6% of them have carry permits, the number of times people who have carry permits traveled on airplanes in 2022 was 56.3 million.
In 2022, the TSA found 6,542 firearms at TSA checkpoints; 88% were loaded. The number of people with concealed carry permits who made a mistake and forgot firearms were in their carry-on, purse, or even in a jacket pocket was slightly more than 1/1000 of 1 percent. To put it another way, those who remembered to follow the rules were an astounding 99.999%
This is an astonishingly low error rate for human actions. The error rate would be even lower if we counted the 117 million adults who can legally carry without a permit.
It is an incredible success when 99.999% of adults follow a rule. This rule is backed by armed agents with sophisticated detection systems and stiff penalties. The rule that requires airlines to allow firearms and ammunition in checked baggage helps. Nearly all responsible adults will choose a legal alternative if it is available.
When the rule for checked baggage was initiated, one or two checked bags were included in virtually all flights. It has become the norm for airlines to charge a fee for checked luggage. This has a chilling effect on people exercising their Second Amendment rights. As a reasonable compromise, checked baggage, which must be used to exercise Second Amendment rights, should be available for free or heavily discounted, perhaps 20% of the normal rate, to Americans exercising those rights.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has meteorology and mining engineering degrees, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30-year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Another reason why we need to get back to “common law”. Because crimes should have a victim. And where is the victim besides the poor soul who made the error? Welcome to Bizarro World come true.
I prefer folks be able to carry their loaded guns on planes. Just as in the rest of society, armed is polite. It’s a reasonable yet strong deterrent to hijackings and outrageous behavior by some passengers. Why does no one bat an eye at the second and fourth amendment violations at all TSA checkpoints?
What did he do to really p/o his wife? Or was this excuse just to make his own stupidity a little less stupid looking? I’ve long thought the idea of “pack your own parachute” had application well away from aviation.
Sometime in 2022, a man going through security at Sacramento International Airport was found to have a handgun in his carry on luggage that he had “just forgotten “ was in that bag. He was not charged with any crime and the nice people at TSA held his gun for him to retrieve when he returned. Did I forget to mention that this man was a member of the CA state Assembly who had previously been a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy? That man is now the Sheriff of Sacramento County.
Rules for thee …..
After reading through all the comments when there were 18 of them and at least five were mine, today was the day for the dolts to comment. I cannot believe some of what I am reading. THE GUY DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG. THERE IS NO VICTIM. He didn’t shoot anyone. No one took the gun out of his bag and shot anyone else. GIVE ME A BREAK. NO VICTIM, NO CRIME. NO CRIME NOT GUILTY.
my only question is, is his wife happy with him?
my wife does not pack my luggage, does yours? if so, lucky you, maybe.
Rule Number 5: Always maintain control of your firearms at all times. This man violated that rule and demonstrated that he did not have a rudimentary understanding of the firearm safety rules. There is no excuse for not knowing where all of your firearms are at any given time. People like him give all firearms owners a black eye and provide evidence for the gun control crowd.
There is something in this article that is not mentioned but is a dam good point. and that is, when people know that they are going to be checked and there is a stiff mandatory penalty for breaking the law, they can and will follow the rules up to a 99.9 percent ratio. My point is, this is proof that if we enforced the rules/laws with no exception, no plea bargain and maximum penalty including auto death sentence, there would be less crime. We need more jails and enforcement of laws, not soft on crime policies. Of course some will… Read more »
We will never know how many hidden weapons make it through. Remember, the 9-11 planes were hijacked with box cutters. I realize that screening should catch a box cutter, but a scalpel blade? Pretty small.
Whenever a mass shooting enters a discussion I’m in, I remind the other speaker that 3,000 people were killed with a handful of box cutters.
Seems like the wife would know better than include a firearm in a bag to be taken on a flight. Or maybe she does know better.