The Transportation Security Administration said it caught a Leesburg man with a loaded gun Monday as he tried to pass through a security checkpoint at Dulles International Airport.

       The man, who the TSA did not identify, was cited by police and faces a civil penalty.

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       Officials said the man had a 9mm handgun that was loaded with 12 rounds and an additional magazine containing another 12 rounds. The gun was found among his carry-on items by an X-ray machine and was confiscated by airport police. The man said he forgot he had the gun, according to the TSA.

       “Responsible gun owners know where their weapons are at all times,” Scott T. Johnson, the TSA’s federal security director for the airport, said in a statement. “It makes no sense that a firearm owner would not know the location of their loaded gun.”

       It was the second gun the TSA had found at the airport this year. In 2021, the agency caught 30 firearms at Dulles, far more than in recent years and an increase that reflects a national pattern.