This article will explore how to transport firearms when flying commercially in the United States. In the last 150 years, guns have gone from being a tool used to control vermin on farms to weapons that provide both a feeling of physical security and a sense of psychological well-being.
Today, in the United States, there are more guns in civilian hands than smartphones. To even put it into a better perspective, it is estimated that there are 400 million civilian-owned guns in the USA. America’s love affair with guns started after the Civil War (1861-1865) when white southerners began arming themselves because of insecurities and racial fears.
Over the proceeding decades, gun ownership in the USA has grown to the point that people view their guns as an extension of who they are, which is why Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners detected 6,737 firearms at American airports in 2023.
Georgia woman tried to take a gun on a flight at DCA
On September 9, 2024, a few days before the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a Georgia woman was caught with a 9mm handgun while trying to board a flight at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Despite it being common knowledge that you cannot have firearms or any other weapons in your carry-on, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has seen an increase in the number of handguns in people’s carry-on luggage.
In the case of the Georgia woman, when X-raying her handbag, the TSA screener discovered a fancy teal-colored 9mm handgun along with three magazines loaded with 30 bullets. Due to the severity of the incident, the airport police were summoned, the gun confiscated, and the woman issued with a $15,000 fine. In a statement released by the TSA following the incident, the TSA’s Federal Security Director at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), John Busch said: