NORFOLK, Va. – A woman in Virginia Beach was cited on a state weapons charges by police at Norfolk International Airport after a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officer found a .25 caliber handgun loaded with six bullets, including one in the chamber, in her carry-on bag. 
Officials say the TSA officer who was staffing the checkpoint X-ray monitor detected the handgun inside the woman’s carry-on bag as it entered the X-ray machine. It marked the 14th gun that TSA officers have detected at the airport so far in 2019.
After TSA found the gun, police units at the airport were notified and responded to the checkpoint, confiscated the gun and cited the woman on weapons charges, according to officials.
Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are properly packaged and declared. Firearms must be unloaded, packed in a hard-sided case, locked, and packed separately from ammunition. Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality.
Nationwide last year, 4,239 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging about 11.6 firearms per day, approximately a 7% increase nationally in firearm discoveries from the total of 3,957 detected in 2017
TSA officers stopped 21 guns at Norfolk International Airport in 2018.
