NORFOLK, Va. — It seems like a simple rule: you're not allowed to freely bring your gun on a plane in Virginia.
However, recently, people trying to catch the next flight out of Norfolk International Airport (ORF) are still not following that rule. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said agents recently caught the 25th gun at the airport just in 2023.
"The high was last year, 27. But, hey, we're only in early August. We have several more months to go in the calendar year and there's a safe bet to say we're going to surpass that number," Farbstein said.
The number has only grown since 2016 when TSA agents caught only 14 guns. The trend spiked in 2018 when agents prevented 21 guns from entering through security, but that dwindled until 2022 when the record broke. Now, 2023 is looking to one-up that number again.
"I have to say, that's really not the record the TSA wants to break," Farbstein said. "I'd rather see fewer people bringing their firearms and packing them properly."
The cause of this growing trend isn't so much malintent, but rather a sense of carelessness among gun owners, according to Norfolk's Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi.
"The vast, vast, vast majority of cases are not people trying to commit air piracy," Fatehi explained. "It's people who are forgetting their guns and not being responsible gun owners."
Fatehi said this growing trend is a microcosm of a much bigger problem, not just in Virginia, but across the nation.
"We continue to see rising numbers of people owning guns. The federal government estimated that 50 million additional guns went into circulation since the beginning of COVID and we're not at 400 million guns," Fatehi said. "The more guns you have, the more people forget about their guns and bring their guns where they're not supposed to be. Whether it's bringing them into the airport, government buildings, or leaving them in their car where they're not supposed to be."
Fatehi added if a gun owner purposefully tries to get a weapon onto a plane, then it falls under a federal crime. However, he said even those who don't realize they have a gun on them when they enter through security can still face serious penalties.
"The first way is that the TSA will fine you civilly and those fines can go up into the thousands of dollars, whether or not you're prosecuted," Fatehi said. "The second way, we generally look for people to plead guilty, accept responsibility, take a few months, stay out of trouble, forfeit their gun for us to destroy. If they manage to do all of those things, and they don't have a prior record, we'll dismiss the charge, but no matter what, you're going to lose your gun and we'll destroy it."
Farbstein said this simple rule also has a simple solution, as long as you properly store away your firearm in a locked case of some form and go to the check-in counter to follow the airport's rules.
"The right way is to make sure it's unloaded and place it in locked, hard box and check it in," Farbstein said. "The airline will make sure that it is transported in the belly of the plane where nobody has access to it during the flight."
Farbstein added out of all the airports in Virginia, Norfolk has the highest recorded number of guns caught at TSA checkpoints so far this year.