Madison Cawthorn Once more Introduced a Loaded Gun to the Airport, Officers Say

Consultant Madison Cawthorn was briefly detained by the police on Tuesday after attempting to deliver a loaded gun via airport safety in Charlotte, N.C., in his carry-on bag, the second time in a bit greater than a 12 months that the North Carolina Republican has been stopped from flying with a firearm.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Division confirmed the details of the latest episode involving Mr. Cawthorn, 26, a pro-Trump congressman whose weird antics and missteps had already threatened to derail his re-election bid. A number of Republicans are difficult him in subsequent month’s major, on Might 17.

Mr. Cawthorn, the youngest member of the Home, was passing via Safety Checkpoint D at Charlotte Douglas Worldwide Airport round 9 a.m. when a Transportation Safety Administration agent noticed the picture of a gun on an X-ray machine, the authorities mentioned.

Law enforcement officials have been referred to as to the checkpoint, the place regulation enforcement officers mentioned that Mr. Cawthorn acknowledged that the gun, a loaded Staccato 9-millimeter pistol, belonged to him. Describing Mr. Cawthorn as cooperative, the police mentioned they cited the congressman with possession of a harmful weapon on metropolis property.

A spokesman for Mr. Cawthorn, who’s in his first time period, didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Tuesday.

It was not clear the place Mr. Cawthorn was touring or if he later continued to his vacation spot after he was launched. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Division didn’t instantly present a replica of its full report in regards to the potential safety breach.

The police in Charlotte, N.C., mentioned that they took possession of the gun, which is customary observe.

The scenario recalled a earlier encounter between airport safety brokers and Mr. Cawthorn in February 2021, when officers mentioned that he tried to deliver a loaded Glock pistol via a checkpoint at Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina.

Mr. Cawthorn was fined over that potential breach, Mark Howell, a T.S.A. spokesman, mentioned on Tuesday. The company doesn’t disclose particular person tremendous quantities, he mentioned. The civil penalties for attempting to deliver a gun via airport safety common about $2,000 for an unloaded gun and $4,000 for a loaded one, with a most tremendous of $13,900, in keeping with the T.S.A.

On the time, a spokesman for Mr. Cawthorn mentioned that the lawmaker recurrently used the identical carry-on bag to stow his gun when he introduced it to a taking pictures vary.

Underneath T.S.A. laws, unloaded firearms are solely allowed in checked baggage, and have to be stowed in a locked, hard-sided container.

Final 12 months, Mr. Cawthorn was accused by a Democratic opponent of bringing a knife with him to a school board meeting in North Carolina. That candidate, Jay Carey, posted photos on Twitter of what he contended was a knife tucked into the again of Mr. Cawthorn’s wheelchair.

Mr. Cawthorn has used a wheelchair since being injured in an vehicle accident when he was 18.

A spokesman for Mr. Cawthorn didn’t reply to Mr. Carey’s allegation, and the incident didn’t lead to a legal cost.

Mr. Cawthorn, who’s from western North Carolina, was charged in March with driving with a revoked license. He has a Might courtroom date on the misdemeanor depend, which carries jail time.

Some Republicans gave the impression to be rising weary of the drama surrounding Mr. Cawthorn after he referred to as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine “a thug” and his nation “extremely evil” amid the Russian invasion.

And in a lurid story that he later acknowledged was not true, Mr. Cawthorn claimed final month that folks he “appeared as much as” in Washington had invited him to orgies and used cocaine. Consultant Kevin McCarthy of California, the Home minority chief, instructed reporters that he had confronted Mr. Cawthorn over the false account and instructed him that he had misplaced belief in him and that he wanted to show his life round.