Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, Republican, has been charged with weapons violations at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed to NBC News on Monday.
The spokesman, who said Spartz was charged Friday, cited a section of Virginia law related to the dangerous use of firearms or other weapons, which makes it a crime to “possess or transport a weapon or a variety of other dangerous weapons” “into an airline airport terminal.” The law classifies the offense as a misdemeanor.
A spokesman for Spartz said the summons was served before her international flight to a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which was taking place in Romania.
“Last Friday, Rep. Spartz inadvertently carried an unloaded handgun in her suitcase with no magazine or bullets, which she did not know was in the pocket of her suitcase, while going through security at Dulles Airport,” the spokesperson said in a statement Monday in response to a request for comment.
Spartz, the first Ukrainian-born immigrant to serve in Congress, is seeking reelection in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District, which includes suburbs north of Indianapolis and is rated solidly Republican by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. She won her primary in May, defeating a challenger who attacked her support for Ukraine aid and other issues.
Spartz is not the first lawmaker to face a gun-possession violation at an airport in recent years.
Then-Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., was fined in 2022 for carrying a loaded gun at an airport security checkpoint in his home state. He had been arrested twice with a firearm at an airport during his two years in office. Cawthorn lost his 2022 primary.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
