

This is a Springfield XP 9mm firearm, the model that TSA officers detected in the carry-on bag of a traveler at Reagan National Airport Monday. TSA photo.

The week is young, but there’s already a candidate for gun of the week from the Transportation Security Administration, which has been publicizing weapons confiscations at the nation’s airports in the hope that passengers will stop trying to carry them on planes.

On Monday night, an unidentified man was stopped at Reagan National Airport when a TSA x-ray revealed a 9mm handgun in his carry on bag. It wasn’t loaded, but a the TSA said a clip loaded with 16 rounds was packed with the gun. The weapons was confiscated, the man was cited by airport police, and then he was allowed to board a plane to Atlanta.

Last week, the TSA officers said 33 guns were discovered at the nation’s airport checkpoints, 25 of them loaded and eight with a chambered round. The TSA also said it confiscated 38 credit card knives, a knife hidden in a coffee cup, something the agency described as a “hair brush dagger,” and a stun cane.