By Cailey Rizzo, Travel + Leisure
A 22-year-old man was arrested at Baltimore Washington International Airport on Wednesday after attempting to bring a gun on a plane. When questioned about the firearm, he said he didn’t know it was inside his bag because his mother packed it, according to LocalDVM.
The traveler has been charged with illegal possession of a firearm, violating airport security rules and bringing a firearm into an airport. The punishment for discovery of a loaded firearm is up to $9,800 and a criminal referral.
The .40-caliber rifle is the 20th gun that security agents at the Baltimore Airport have found so far this year. Last year, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported 26 guns.
According to the TSA, Baltimore is not even in the top 10 airports in the country where firearms are most commonly discovered. The top airport is Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, where last year, security officers found 245 firearms, 222 of which were loaded.
Last year, the TSA found and confiscated a record-breaking 3,957 firearms in carry-on bags at checkpoints throughout the country. The agency says that’s an average of 10.8 guns per day. The number of firearm discoveries at American airports has increased steadily since 2007.
