| Passengers trying to take guns through the Yeager Airport security checkpoint is becoming common as the ninth such incident has been reported so far this calendar year.
The Transportation Security Administration said in a news release that a Copen, Braxton County man was caught with a loaded handgun Sunday at Yeager Airport.
Federal officials said the nine incidents are more than four times the number caught the previous year. In 2015, two travelers brought guns to the airport's checkpoint.
The increase could be related to the expansion of the "free carry" of handguns in WV.
As the man entered the TSA checkpoint, he placed his carry-on items in bins to pass through the metal detector. TSA officers spotted the 9 mm handgun on the X-ray monitor. It was loaded and included two magazines with 16 bullets, including one in the chamber of the gun.
TSA officers immediately contacted Yeager Airport Police, who responded and confiscated the gun and cited the man on a state weapons charge.
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